THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


FAR-WEST  SKETCHES 


JESSIE    BENTON    FREMONT 

Author  of  "  Souvenirs  of  My  Time,"  Etc.,  Etc. 


BOSTON 

D.     LOTHROP     COMPANY 

WASHINGTON    STREET    OPPOSITE    BROMFIELU 


6994a 


\ 


COPYRIGHT,   1890, 
BY 

E.  Benton  Kkemont. 


S 


/ 


i'^ 


CONTENTS. 

J  

\ 

;•  I. 

^ 

CHRISTMAS   IN   LOTOS-LAND I3 

II. 

HOW  THE  GOOD  NEWS  CAME  OUT  FROM  THE  WEST  29 

III. 
MY    GRIZZLY    BEAR 42 

I 

I  IV. 

I 

;  BESIEGED 53 

V. 

THE   HOUSE   THAT  JACK    BUILT      ....  84 

VI. 

SIERRA   NEIGHBORS I08 

VII. 

CAMPING    NEAR   THE   GIANT   TREES        .  .  .  I36 

9 


IQ  CONIENTS. 

VIII. 
THK   BALL '5" 

IX. 

THE   CAMP   ON    MT.    BULLION  .  .  .  .  167 

X. 

A   "FAR   COU.NTREt"      ..**••  ^^2 


FAR-WEST  SKETCHES 


FAR-WEST    SKETCHES. 


CHRISTMAS    IN    LOTOS-LAND. 


"  Kens' t  dii  das  land. " 


A  CHRISTMAS  day  all  sunshine  and  roses 
—  a  Sunday  and  Christmas-day  in  one  ; 
peace  within,  and  all  about  us  good-will. 

We  got  in  the  night  before,  Christmas  Eve, 
and  now  with  the  long  journey  across  our  huge 
continent  ended  in  safety  for  our  invalid,  and 
this  sunshine-land  for  ally,  our  anxieties  could 
cease. 

It  seemed  like  the  waking  from  a  bad  dream. 
Back  of  us  lay  the  sudden  illness,  the  warning 
to  "get  away  to  a  warm  climate,  while  it  rf>  yet 
time,    and    risk   no   more    Northern   winters." 


14  CHRISTMAS    IN    LOTOS-LAND. 

Then  the  hurried  start  —  the  dropping  of  all 
other  home  ties  —  of  all  occupations  and  aims 
in  life  to  keep  life  itself — all  the  wrenching  and 
uprooting,  keenly  felt  but  held  under  by  the 
necessity  for  action  not  feeling,  were  changed 
now  into  peace  and  hope. 

We  had  known  well  where  to  go: 

"There  are  no  rough  breezes  blowing 
In  that  fair  land  where  we  are  going  " 

—  where  neither  summer  heat  nor  winter  cold 
could  harm,  and  for  us  it  was  gilded  by  the 
morning  splendor  of  young  memories. 

The  cold  black  Atlantic  was  washing  against 
the  snow-covered  Jersey  coast  as  we  ran  up  to 
New  York,  and  cold  and  snow  were  with  us  in 
the  early,  early  drive  across  Washington,  not 
too  early  to  find  dear  baby  faces  watching  for 
us  at  the  window  —  rusliing  out  regardless  of 
weather  with  shouts  of  welcome  to  bring  us  in 
close  to  the  briL^lil  fire,  to  pour  out  a  liajipy 
confusion  of  joy  and  eager  hospitality — "right 


CHRISTMAS    IN    LOTOS-LAND. 


15 


here,  in  the  big  chair  by  the  fire  you  are  to 
have  your  tea  —  and  we  are  to  come  to  dinner 
to-day  —  and  it's  going  to  be  Christmas,  soon." 

"  Next  Sunday,"  says  accurate  Jack. 

"  Yes,  next  Sunday,"  echoes  Baby  Juliet, 
"  Christmas  soon,  next  Sunday,  yes-ter-day," 
her  one  date. 

They  were  so  full  of  joyful  pride  in  welcom- 
ing us  to  their  house,  after  the  happy  seaside 
summer  with  us,  and  so  beautifully  intent  on 
their  young  hospitality  that  we  all  met  it  in  the 
same  spirit.  That  one  day  of  halt  in  the  jour- 
ney should  also  be  a  day  of  rest  from  troubled  * 
thought.  "Do  not  poison  to-day  with  to- 
morrow," a  wise  kind  physician  told  me  long 
ago,  so  we  were  led  by  a  little  child  and  made 
it  Juliet's  "yesterday"  —  a  home-day  that  keeps 
always  "the  tender  grace  of  a  d-ay  that  is 
gone." 

One  little  one  declared  she  would  go  with  us. 
She  was  staggered  when  it  was  represented  to 
her  that  she  would  then  misi.  the  Christmas-Tree 


i 


l6  CHRISTMAS    IN    LOTOS-LAND, 

and  the  presents,  but  soon  she  rallied  to  her 
purpose, 

"Then  I  will  wait,"  she  said,  climbing  to  the 
arms  always  so  glad  to  hold  her;  and  nestling 
her  pink  cheek  against  the  gra}-  moustache  she 
gave  her  plan  (in  that  bright  lexicon  of  baby- 
hood there  is  no  such  word  as  impossible). 
"As  soon  as  I  wake  after  the  Tree  I  will  go  to 
the  engine  house  and  tell  the  driver  to  hurry 
and  catch  up  —  oh!  —  please  tell  your  driver  to 
drive  slow,  because  I  am  coming  as  soon  as  the 
Tree  is  over,  and  when  we  catch  up  with  you  I 
will  say  thank  you,  and  get  on  your  train  and 
go  on  with  you." 

Later  the  nurse  came  for  help  to  stop  the 
little  one  from  "rummaging  the  closets  and 
drawers."  She  had  decided  that  "eight  dresses 
will  do,  but  they  must  be  my  best,"  and  her 
slim  hands  were  busy  "  packing  "  them. 

We  had  to  go  on.  Night  settled  on  us  in- 
stalled in  warmth  and  the  luxury  of  comfort 
American    travel    has    devised.     Our   immense 


CHRISTMAS    IN    LOTOS-LAND.  17 

continent  with  its  huge  upheaved  mountain 
chains  no  longer  means  weary  travel,  hardly 
weary  distance.  To  us  the  overland  journey 
comes  always  with  fresh  delight  in  the  contrast 
with  past  experiences.  "  The  West "  in  my 
early  day  meant  a  two  weeks'  journey  to  St. 
Louis  then  a  frontier  town.  Now  one  week 
takes  you  from  sea  to  sea,  so  surrounded  by 
home-comforts  that  it  is  more  a  resting-break 
than  a  journey.  And  all  the  time  you  find  new 
reasons  for  pride  in  the  great  country  traveled 
over. 

We  looked  back  through  the  gathering  night 
and  falling  snow  to  the  dome  of  the  Capitol,  so 
often  our  last  land-mark  of  home,  and  though 
we  spoke  bravely  of  its  welcoming  us  back  on 
many  happy  returns,  yet  of  what  we  felt  most 
just  then  we  did  not  speak. 

Soon  came  new  ideas.  A  stop  for  supper 
was  called  out  at  "  Manassas  Junction,"  and  at 
that  name  the  years  rolled  back  to  that  ordeal 
of  the  nation  —  that  time  of  partings  —  of  un- 


l8  CHRISTMAS    IN    LOTOS-LAND. 

returning  feet  —  of  great  aims  and  great  deeds, 
and  in  its  mighty  shadow  personal  pain  felt 
rebuked. 

And  so,  on  and  on,  down  the  valley  of  the 
rushing  Kanawha  where  I  as  a  child  had  so 
often  traveled  among  welcoming  relations  from 
one  Virginia  home  to  another,  through  Ken- 
tucky past  more  battle  memories  and  more 
names  recalling  family  homes  and  united  feel- 
ings ;  then  the  straight  descent  of  the  noble 
Mississippi  valley  —  to  me  inseparable  from  my 
father. 

You  come  upon  the  Great  River  just  above 
Memphis.  A  swell  of  far-past  but  never  dimmed 
memories  came  with  the  view  of  the  mighty 
stream,  its  tawny  waters  shining  in  the  glow  of 
the  setting  sun. 

Because  I  was  fortunate  in  living  from  my 
youth  up  with  the  prophets  and  wise  men  of 
the  Great  West  I  see  it  and  know  its  conquering 
growth  as  I  would  have  you  young  people  of 
the  East  see  it. 


CHRISTMAS    IN    LOTOS-LAND.  I9 

We  had  come  into  softer  drier  air  after  the 
Alleghanies  made  our  shelter  from  Atlantic 
winds,  and  in  pleasant  Kentucky  we  saw  no 
snow;  instead  the  trees  and  pastures  were  still 
green. 

We  had  not  dared  to  look  back  or  question 
the  wisdom  of  our  sudden  move.  Now  we  saw 
it  was  being  justified  by  improving  conditions. 
And  the  interest  in  unfamiliar  country  traveled 
over  was  great.  Especially  when  we  ran  along 
between  level  rich  sugar  estates  ;  but  even  here 
the  winter  began  to  overtake  us.  We  drove 
across  New  Orleans  and  crossed  the  river  in  a 
driving  sleet  storm.  Harsh  weather  was  a  new 
feature  there,  but  again  familiar  names  of  streets 
recalled  a  far  past  and  my  father,  and  the  high- 
walled  gardens  of  Esplanade  street  still  had 
their  orange-trees  though  the  oranges  now 
glistened  through  icy  coating. 

From  here,  on,  through  Louisiana,  through 
Texas  and  New  Mexico,  even  through  heated 
lower  Arizona  it  was  a  neck-and-neck  race  with 


20  CHRISTMAS    IX    LOTOS-LAXD. 

our  enemy  winier.  A  winter  so  exceptional  and 
cruel  that  even  in  these  low  latitudes  sleet,  ice, 
drMng  cold  winds  and  rains  kept  pace  with 
us.  Long  icicles  fringed  the  water  tanks.  We 
needed  our  furs  and  winter  wraps  although  a 
soft  warmth  kept  the  Pullman  car  healthily 
corafonable.  Even  at  Yuma,  which  disputes 
with  Aden  the  palm  for  heat,  there  was  skim- 
ice  about  the  grounds  of  the  hotel  where  we 
breakfasted :  but  the  blue  sky,  and  orange-trees 
loaded  with  fruit  promised  return  to  usual  con- 
ditions. Then  followed  the  dip  of  over  three 
hundred  feet  below  the  sea  level ;  usually  a 
stifling  passage  across  the  desert  sandy  basin 
of  what  was  once  the  head  of  the  Gulf  of  Cali- 
fornia but  just  now  only  agreeably  warm.  Fare- 
well now  to  winter,  for  we  were  safe  at  last  in 
tlie  summer  land !  Coming  up  on  the  far  side 
of  tbe  Basin  we  met  the  fresh  yet  s(rft  air  of  the 
Pacific  Ocean  and  entered  a  r^on  of  rich  val- 
leys and  gentle  hills  with  pastures  and  orchards 
and    pretty   faimbouaes    and,   what    as    ntgfat 


CHRISTMAS    IN    LOTOS-LAND.  21 

closed  in,  was  as  beautiful  after  days  of  travel 
through  silent  wastes  —  the  close  succession  of 
brightly-lighted  villages  and  towns  with  large 
stations  and  many  people  waiting  "to  go  to 
town." 

And  into  the  town  we  ran,  Christmas  Eve  — 
only  two  hours  behind  time  on  the  long  journey 
from  sea  to  sea. 

Before  we  were  fairly  in  dear  friends  had  met 
us  and  we  realized  bv  their  sympathy  of  look 
and  manner  what  a  haggard-looking  lot  we 
were. 

From  the  railway  carriage  which  had  been 
our  secluded  quiet  home  for  a  week  we  emerged 
into  a  glare  of  gas  and  electric  lights,  the  noise, 
the  crowd,  the  crush  of  a  busy  city — a  stun- 
ning change. 

It  was  a  long  drive  to  the  hotel,  but  every 
image  of  repose  was  waiting  us.  Real  beds, 
large  separate  rooms,  tea  by  a  quiet  stationary 
table,  and  to  feel  we  were  no  longer  attached 
to  a  time-table  made  us  eratefullv  content.     For 


22  CHRISTMAS    IN    LOTOS-LAND. 

some  days  we  reeled  to  and  fro  unexpectedly, 
for  the  journey  is  trying.  But  it  was  safely 
over.  The  cough  was  almost  over  too,  though 
some  months  after,  our  friend  who  knew  us  all 
intimately  said  he  had  feared  that  night  there 
was  no  "lift"  again  for  either  of  us.  It  had 
been  a  race  for  life  against  winter  and  Life 
won. 

Christmas  morning  came  with  warm  blue  sky 
and  sweet  sunshine.  Up  the  street  between 
tall  business  houses  we  could  look  to  Fort  Hill, 
where  forty  years  before  our  rescued  invalid 
had  planted  a  battery  and  raised  our  Flag. 
And  where  the  loveliness  of  nature  and  climate 
entered  his  heart  and  never  left  it.  To  come 
back  here  was  to  renew  younger  life  and  find 
new  strength. 

W'liat  a  woiukrsclwn  drive  we  had  that  Christ- 
mas-ilay  —  all  manner  of  surprises  delighted 
us.  It  was  only  eight  jears  since  I  had  seen 
it  —  a  very  quiet  little  town  still  in  its  cocoon 


CHRISTMAS    IX    LOTOS-LAND.  2^ 

of  Californian  indifference  to  American  push. 
"  Why  trouble  for  more,  when  we  have  enough  ? " 
But  transcontinental  railways  push  too  hard  for 

inertness  or  resistance,  and  now  it  was  a  big 
city  never  to  know  quiet  again.  The  low  hills 
and  flower\-  plains  browsed  over  by  countless 
sheep  had  become  a  spreading  city  with  out- 
lying villages  and  farmsteads  and  market  gar- 
dens, and  ever\-where  the  once  open  view  was 
broken  by  long  avenues  and  thickets  of  the 
tall  Australian  gum-tree,  its  marked  blue-green 
(peacock-blue)  in  contrast  with  the  rich  dark- 
green  of  the  orchards  on  orchards,  and  avenues 
of  the  orange  now  covered  with  its  golden  fruit, 
and  the  exquisite  feathen-  pale-green  of  the 
pepper-tree  which  makes  here,  as  in  modem 
Athens,  the  chosen  shade-tree.  Pretty  cottages 
—  ver}-  "  seaside  "  many  of  them— were  every- 
where  on  smooth  lawns  of  blue  grass,  their 
piazzas  veiled  by  fragrant  roses  climbing  to  the 
roof  —  the  pure  white  Lamarque,  the  yellow 
Marechal  Neil,  saffron,  red  and  rich  pink  roses 


24  CHRISTMAS    IN    LOTOS-LAND. 

in  loveliest  luxuriance.  Geraniums  were  for 
hedges — they  grow  so  fast,  and  are  held  as 
"common";  calla-lilies  are  used  in  the  same 
way  for  the  same  reasons;  they  are  often 
planted  along  the  narrow  water-ways  which 
are  as  much  part  of  the  town  system  as  are 
the  pavements. 

The  abundant  water  runs  in  these  fixed  open 
channels  at  fixed  rates  and  times  under  the 
active  supervision  of  a  "  zanjero  "  *  (in  Amer- 
ican "  the  sankey-man,"  as  we  say  the  ice-man 
or  the  milkman),  and  the  tall  lilies  flourish  with 
a  luxuriance  of  dark-green  leaves  and  big  white 
flowers  that  would  at  once  delight  and  distress 
an  Eastern  florist  in  his  calculation  for  church 
decoration. 

Flowers  we  coddle  in  warm  rooms  were  here 
small  trees  with  the   birds  going   about    their 

•  The  Moors  left  their  enduring  mark  on  Spain  in  Iheir  system  of  irri- 
gation reproduced  here  by  the  early  Spanish  priests,  and  keeping  through 
time  and  changes  of  all  kinds  the  original  Moorish  names  of  "  zanja 
and  "  zanjero  "  for  the  open  water-conduits,  and  the  ofHcial  charged  to 
oversee  their  proper  use. 


CHRISTMAS    IN    LOTOS-LAND.  25 

nest-building  among  them  —  busiest  and  loud- 
est and  sweetest  the  mocking-bird,  building  fitly 
in  trees  of  roses,  heliotropes  and  citronalis,  and 
oleanders  with  white  and  splendid  rose-colored 
blossoms. 

It  was  wonderfully  gay  and  inspiriting  to  see 
all  this  beautiful  life  in  contrast  to  the  winter 
just  behind  us. 

The  lovely  valley  is  rimmed  about  by  ranges 
of  mountains  rising  from  green  foot-hills  to  the 
dark  Sierra,  snow-crowned.  Its  glittering  sum- 
mits made  the  culminating  touch  of  beauty  — 
and  the  defense  for  us  — "  so  far,  but  no 
farther,"  its  snow-peaks  said. 

Even  the  trees  were  in  color.  The  pimento 
—  pepper-tree  —  has  feathery  fern-like  foliage 
of  tender  white-green  with  long  clusters  of 
berries,  the  size  and  clear  color  of  red  currants. 
It  is  such  a  fresh,  refined  and  graceful  tree  that 
I  do  not  wonder  it  was  chosen  as  the  decorative 
tree  in  the  new  Athens  where  it  borders  the 
avenues    and    parks.     By    it,    here,    grows   the 


26  CHRISTMAS    IN    LOTOS-LAND, 

noble  Norfolk  pine  with  its  star-shaped  boughs 
graduated  until  the  lofty  top  has  a  horizontal 
five-pointed  star  crowning  all.  When  we  saw 
one  of  these  growing  by  two  giant  palms,  there 
came  irresistibly  to  mind  the  early  story  of  the 
Christmas  in  Judea. 

We  were  now  in  the  new  and  broader  resi- 
dence quarter,  the  avenues  of  orange,  of  pepper- 
trees,  of  fan-palm  became  longer,  the  lawns 
spread  into  greater  size,  and  the  large  houses 
back  in  their  grounds  were  pictures  of  beauty 
from  the  masses  of  delicate  foliage  and  lovely 
color  about  them.  Turning  into  the  gates  of 
one  of  these  our  friend  said  it  was  growing  too 
warm  for  our  wraps,  and  we  would  leave  them 
at  that  house. 

"  But  can  we  ?  " 

"  O,  yes  !  I  know  them  there.  They  will  be 
very  glad  to  have  you  drive  through,  or,  if  you 
will,  come  in." 

We  drove  very  slowly  up  a  long  carriage-way 
bordereil  by  a  hedge  of  glowing  geraniums,  and 


CHRISTMAS    IN    LOTOS-LAND.  27 

on  the  other  side  chrysanthemums,  with  ver- 
benas as  a  foot-rug  ;  then  a  turn  between  six- 
foot-high  hedges  of  cypress  trimmed  to  velvety 
smoothness  brought  us  to  such  a  pleasaunce ! 
On  its  fine  turf  were  magnolias,  cypress,  locust 
and  almond-trees,  and  two  huge  India  rubber- 
trees,  all  from  twenty  to  thirty  feet  high,  and 
the  house  up  to  the  second  fioorwas  masked  by 
roses,  honeysuckle  and  a  gorgeous  orange  col- 
ored creeper  in  cascades  of  blooms  —  while 
everywhere  were  the  perfume  of  violets  and 
song  of  birds. 

Fancy  this,  after  the  black  Atlantic  and  the 
pursuing  snow  and  cold. 

And  all  this  growth,  from  grass  to  trees, 
was  not  yet  eight  years  old. 

We  were  so  entranced  we  did  not  notice  the 
carriage  had  stopped  by  the  lotos-pond.  Our 
friend  had  taken  out  the  wraps  and  a  lady  was 
coming  down  the  steps  with  a  smile  of  welcome 
in  her  gentle  blue  eyes. 

"Yes,"  she  said,  "you  are  to  get  out — and 


28  CHRISTMAS    IN    LOTOS-LAND. 

luncheon  is  waiting  you  —  I   am  at  home  here, 
and  so  are  you." 

My  letters  home  that  evening  were  all  out  of 
shape  with  rose-leaves  and  violets  and  such-like 
sweet  vouchers  that  we  were  safe  where  winter 
could  not  follow,  and  in  their  own  dear  silent 
way  carried  messages  of  comforting  and  hope. 


II. 


HOW   THE   GOOD   NEWS   CAME   OUT    FROM    THE 
WEST. 

EDISON  says  he  will  work  at  his  latest 
invention  "until  it  registers  sounds  now 
lost  to  our  grosser  senses." 

I  would  like  to  tell  you  of  a  singular  trans- 
mission of  knowledge  between  far  distant  points, 
which  he  may  yet  be  able  to  explain.  For  it 
was  akin  to  the  telephone,  only  sublimated. 

It  would  have  been  a  ghost  story  pure  and 
simple  in  older  times;  but  to  be  in  keeping  with 
to-day  it  is  but  a  beautiful  fact,  which  Science 
may  yet  reduce  to  useful  practice. 

I  was  so  used  to  his  safe  returns  from  every 
danger  that  I  had  become  fairly  reasonable 
about  Mr.  Fremont's  journeys,  and  my  wise  lov- 
ing father  took  care  I  should  have  my  mind  and 
29 


30  HOW    THE    GOOD    NEWS 

time  usefully  filled.  We  could  not  look  to  hear 
from  Mr.  Fre'mont  on  the  unoccupied  line  of 
country  he  was  exploring  that  winter  of  1853- 
54 ;  he  must  first  reach  the  close  at  San  Fran- 
cisco, and  our  first  news  must  come  by  the 
Isthmus  route  of  Panama;  at  the  earliest,  mid- 
summer. But  in  midwinter,  without  any  reason, 
I  became  possessed  by  the  conviction  that  he 
was  starving ;  nor  could  any  effort  reason  this 
away.  No  such  impression  had  ever  come  to 
me  before,  although  more  than  once  dreadful 
suffering,  and  even  deaths  from  starvation,  had 
befallen  his  other  expeditions. 

This  time  it  came  upon  me  as  a  fact  I  could 
not  turn  from.  It  fairly  haunted  nie  for  nearly 
two  weeks,  until,  young  and  absolutely  healthy 
as  I  was,  it  made  a  physical  effect  on  me. 
Sleep  and  appetite  were  broken  up,  and  in  spite 
of  my  father's  and  my  own  efforts  to  dissipate 
it  by  reasoning,  by  added  open-air  life,  nothing 
dulled  my  sense  of  increasing  suffering  from 
hunger  to  Mr.  Fremont  and  his  party. 


CAME    OUT    FROM    THE    WEST.  3 1 

This  weight  of  fear  was  lifted  from  me  as 
suddenly  as  it  had  come. 

My  house  was  near  that  of  my  father's,  and 
the  younger  part  of  his  family  when  returning 
from  parties  often  came  to  me  for  the  remainder 
of  the  night  that  the  elders  might  not  have  their 
sleep  broken.  In  this  way  one  of  my  sisters 
and  a  cousin  came  to  me  after  a  wedding  ball 
at  General  Jessup's.  The  drive  home  was  long 
and  over  rough  frozen  streets,  and  it  was  nearly 
one  o'clock  when  they  came  in  —  glad  enough 
of  the  bright  room  and  big  wood  fire  waiting 
them.  As  girls  do,  they  took  off  their  ball 
dresses  and  made  themselves  comfortable  with 
loose  woollen  gowns  and  letting  down  their 
hair,  while  I,  only  too  pleased  just  then  to 
have  an  excuse  for  staying  up  with  others, 
made  them  tea  as  we  talked  over  the  evening 
and  the  bride. 

The  fire  was  getting  low  and  I  went  into  the 
adjoining  dressing-room  to  bring  in  more  wood. 
It  was  an  old-fashioned  big  fireplace   and    the 


32 


HOW    THE    GOOD    NEWS 


sticks  were  too  large  to  grasp  with  the  hand ; 
as  I  half-knelt,  balancing  the  long  sticks  on  my 
left  arm,  a  hand  rested  lightly  on  my  left  shoul- 
der, and  Mr.  Fremont's  voice,  pleased  and 
laughing,  whispered  my  name.  There  was  no 
sound  beyond  the  quick-whispered  name  —  no 
presence,  only  the  touch  —  that  was  all.  But  I 
knew  (as  one  knows  in  dreams)  that  it  was  Mr. 
Fremont,  gay,  and  intending  to  startle  my  sister 
whose  ready  scream  always  freshly  amused  him. 

Silently  I  went  back  into  the  girls'  room  with 
the  wood,  but  before  I  could  speak  my  sister, 
looking  up  to  take  a  stick  from  me,  gave  a  great 
cry  and  fell  in  a  heap  on  the  rug. 

"What  have  you  seen.?"  called  out  our  cousin, 
Mary  Benton,  the  most  steady-nerved,  even- 
natured  of  women  then  as  now. 

I  had  not  yet  spoken  ;  this  was  all  in  a  flash 
together.  When  I  said  it  was  Mr.  Fremont  — 
that  he  touched  my  shoulder  for  me  to  "  keep 
still  and  let  him  scare  Susy"  —  then  the  poor 
child  screamed  again  and  again.     We  crushed 


CAME  OUT  FROM  THE  WEST.        ;^^ 

her  ball  dress  over  her  head  to  keep  the  sound 
from  the  neighbors,  but  it  was  difficult  to  quiet 
her. 

The  girls  had  been  distressed  by  my  fixed 
idea  of  danger  to  Mr.  Fremont  and  knew  how 
out  of  condition  it  had  made  me.  Their  first 
thought  now  was  that  my  mind  had  broken 
down.  They  soon  realized  this  was  not  so  as 
we  discussed  the  strange  fact  of  my  knowing — 
knowing  —  and  so  surely  that  peace  came  back 
to  me  —  that  whatever  he  had  had  to  bear  was 
over ;  that  he  was  now  safe  and  light  of  heart ; 
and  that  in  some  way  he  himself  had  told 
me  so. 

We  talked  long  and  the  girls  were  too  excited 
for  sleep,  though  the  unreliable  little  French 
clock  chimed  three.  But  a  blessed  rest  had 
fallen  on  me  and  I  went  off  to  "  a  sleep  that 
sank  into  my  soul "  deep  and  dreamless,  from 
which  I  did  not  wake  until  ten  the  next  day, 
when  my  eyes  opened  to  see  my  father  sitting 
by  my  bedside.     He    had    been   guarding   my 


34  HOW    THE    GOUD    NEWS 

sleep  a  long  time  —  in  fact  the  whole  household 
were  protecting  it  as  the  crisis  of  a  fever. 

The  girls  had  watched  near  me  until  morning 
when  they  went  over  and  told  my  father,  who 
had  in  our  family  physician,  Dr.  Lindsley,  to 
look  at  me.  But  both  recognized  it  to  be 
healthy  refreshing  sleep;  my  color  had  returned 
and  the  strained  anxious  expression  was  gone  — 
more  than  any  words  this  told  to  practiced  eyes 
that  some  electric  change  had  restored  "  the 
peaceful  currents  of  the  blood." 

With  sleep  and  appetite  strength  soon  re- 
turned, but  the  true  "good-medicine  "  was  my 
absolute  certainty  of  safety  for  Mr.  Fremont. 

My  father's  first  words  to  me  had  been, 
"Child,  you  have  seen  a  vision  ?"  and  lawyer- 
like  he  questioned  and  cross-questioned  me 
thoroughly  (as  he  had  already  the  two  girls). 
This  vision,  as  he  n;imcd  it,  interested  him 
deeply.  He  knew  me  to  be  soundly  healthy; 
he  had  seen  the  sucUlen  genuine  fear  holding 
and  altering  me  as  an   illness  wouUi,  and  now, 


CAME    OUT    FROM    THE    WEST.  35 

as  suddenly  and  completely  as  a  northwest  wind 
clears  the  air  and  leaves  it  fresh,  cool  and  life- 
giving,  this  "  vision  "  had  swept  away  all  clouds 
of  fear  and  brought  me  new  life. 

We  all  talked  it  over  with  friends,  often. 
There  was  no  way  to  verify  what  Mr.  Fre'mont's 
part  had  been  during  those  two  weeks.  We 
must  wait  until,  his  journey  over,  by  summer  at 
the  earliest,  he  should  reach  San  Francisco,  and 
then  the  only  mail  was  nearly  a  month,  via  the 
Isthmus. 

But  in  early  April  there  came  to  Washington, 
overland,  a  Mormon  elder,  named  Babitt,  from 
the  settlement  of  Parowan  in  (now)  South  Utah. 
Mr.  Babitt  brought  us  letters  from  Mr.  Fremont 
written  at  Parowan,  and  added  many  details  of 
personal  intelligence. 

The  winter  had  been  very  harsh,  and  much 
snow  falling  drove  off  the  game.  Mr.  Fre'mont 
had  in  his  party  but  few  of  his  old  companions 
—  men  whose  experience  and  nerve  gave  them 
resource    and    staying   power   in    emergencies. 


36  HOW   THE   GOOD    NEWS 

The  new  men  became  nearly  demoralized  under 
the  trying  ordeal  of  cold  and  hunger  and  were 
almost  given  out  when  after  foTty  days  of  in- 
creasing want  they  reached  this  small  Mormon 
settlement.  There  they  were  taken  care  of  with 
a  true  hospitality  and  kindness  which  none  of 
our  family  ever  forget.  One  good  man,  Fuller, 
had  died  the  day  before,  but  they  brought  him 
in  fastened  on  a  horse,  and  Christian  burial 
was  given  him  while  men  and  women  with  true 
Christian  kindness  patiently  nursed  back  to  life 
those  nearly  exhausted. 

Most  of  the  party  were  unwilling  to  go  farther, 
and  remained  there,  for  whites  and  Indians 
agreed  that  no  one  had  ever  been  heard  of 
again  who  had  tried  to  cross  into  California  on 
that  line. 

As  Mr.  Fre'mont  persevered,  Mr.  Babitt  aided 
him  in  all  ways  to  refit,  and  cashed  his  personal 
draft  on  a  San  Francisco  bank,  a  trust  never 
before  shown  a  Gentile  by  a  Mormon. 

Now  the  fact  was  verified  that  there  had  been 


CAME    OUT    FROM    THE    WEST.  37 

a  Starving  time  ;  that  it  had  lasted  through  Jan- 
uar}'  into  the  next  month;  that  the  last  fortnight 
had  been  desperately,  almost  fatally  exhausting 

—  quite  so  to  poor  Fuller. 

This  fortnight  was  the  period  during  which  I 
knew  of  their  starving. 

The  relief  came  to  them  when  they  got  into 
Parowan  —  the  evening  of  tlie  sixth  of  February 

—  when  I  was  made  to  know  that  also,  that 
same  night.  Every  family  took  in  some  of  the 
men,  putting  them  into  warm  rooms  and  clean 
comfortable  beds,  and  kind-faced  women  gave 
them  reviving  food  and  pitying  words.  Mr, 
Fre'mont's  letters  could  not  say  enough  of  the 
gentle,  patient  care  of  these  kind  women.  And 
of  his  own  "great  relief  of  mind." 

After  this  we  heard  no  more  until  the  twenty- 
fifth  of  May  when  he  telegraphed  from  New 
York  as  his  steamer  got  in  from  Aspinwall,  and 
by  set  of  sun  he  was'again  at  home. 

Soon  he  was  told  by  my  father  of  what  I  have 
been   telling   you   here.      His   lawyer-habit   of 


b  u  9  i  G 


38  HOW    THE    GOOD    NEWS 

mind  had  made  him  minutely  verify  what  we 
three  women  had  to  tell,  but  there  was  a  point 
beyond  on  which  the  geographer-astronomer- 
mind  fastened  —  the  point  of  Time, 

As  nearly  as  we  could  settle  it,  two  A.  M.  was 
the  hour  I  had  the  flash  of  information  that  all 
was  well  again. 

The  girls  had  stayed  out  later  than  usual  as 
it  was  an  assembly  of  family  friends  for  a  mar- 
riage festivity,  and  the  long  rough  drive  over 
frozen  mud  of  the  old  Washington  streets  was 
necessarily  slow.  Our  old  coachman  objected  to 
being  out  after  twelve  and  we  saw  with  a  little 
quake  that  it  was  nearly  one  when  they  came  in. 

After  that  came  the  undressing,  the  leisurely 
hair-brushing,  the  long  gossip  over  the  evening 
as  they  took  their  tea ;  and  this  brought  it  to 
about  two  o'clock.  Time  did  not  enter  much 
into  our  former  easy-going  Southern  lives,  and 
we  were  three  young  women  amused,  comfort- 
able—  and  what  did  it  matter  an  hour  more  or 
less  ? 


CAME  OUT  FROM  THE  WEST.        39 

After  the  shock  we  were  too  deeply  moved  to 
do  other  than  feel.  Properly,  we  should  have 
looked  at  the  clock,  made  a  minute  of  the  facts, 
signed  it,  and  put  it  on  record.  But  we  did  not 
know  about  all  that,  those  days. 

We  only  knew  it  was  "  nearing  one  "  when 
the  girls  came  home,  "  about  two "  when  the 
fire  grew  low,  and  "  quite  three "  when  over- 
powering sleep  sent  me  off  to  bed. 

Next  morning  when  the  baggage  came,  the 
journal  of  that  time  was  taken  out  and  we  read 
the  entry  for  the  night  of  their  arrival  at  Paro- 
wan,  the  bringing  up  of  the  journal  to  the  latest 
waking  hour  being  a  fixed  habit.     We  read  : 

''''  Paroivan,   February  6,    iili  30'  /.   w.,"  and 

the  brief  record  of  the  arrival,  their  safety 
and  comfort,  and  the  goodness  of  every  one  to 
them.  Pie  had  been  around  to  each  of  his 
party  for  a  thankful  good-night,  and  had  seen 
them  each  in  warm  beds ;  he  wrote  of  the  con- 
trast to  the  bad  days  just  past  and  of  his  own 
quiet  room  with  its  fire  of   logs  and  "  the  big 


40 


HOW   THE   GOOD    NEWS 


white  bed  "  waiting  him,  to  which  he  must  go 
now  for  he  was  "fatigued"  and  it  was  near 
midnight. 

Then  there  followed  the  wish  that  I  could 
know  of  this  comfort  and  of  his  mind  at  ease. 
And,  at  that  moment,  I  did  know. 
For  the  difference  of  longitude  makes  Wash- 
ington two  hours  and  twenty-three  minutes  later 
than  Parowan,  so  that  ii*'3o'/.  m.  there,  would 
be  in  Washington  i^  53'  a.  7n.  —  "about"  two 
o'clock ! 

They  have  here  in  California,  a  lovely  custom 
of  a  Festival  of  Flowers  each  year  while  the 
wild  flowers  are  in  beauty  and  roses  and  other 
planted  flowers  are  literally  in  countless  number 
and  splendor.  These  flowers  that  "toil  not" 
yet  do  noble  work,  for  the  annual  flower-fetes 
have  built  up  Orphan  Asylums  and  Homes  for 
Working  Women  throughout  the  State. 

In  the  spring  of  18S8  we  were  guests  of  the 
beautiful  rich  town  of  San  Jose  during  its  flower- 


CAME    OUT    FROM    THE    WEST,  41 

fete.  Among  the  farming  people  who  came  into 
town  to  wish  a  kindly  welcome  to  Mr,  Fre'mont 
was  one,  gray,  weather-beaten,  but  hale  and 
clear-eyed.  Among  the  roses  he  stood,  observing 
the  General,  then  said,  "  I  would  know  you  again 
anywhere,  but  you  would  not  know  me." 

But  a  dawning  memory  was  coming  up  and 
the  General  asked  "  Was  it  not  in  snow-time  ?  " 
and  both  said  "  Parowan." 

And  so  it  was — the  very  man  at  whose  house 
he  had  been  so  hospitably  cared  for — from 
whose  hearth  in  Utah  had  flashed  to  me  in 
Washington  that  strange  message  of  peace. 


III. 


MY    GRIZZLY    BEAR. 

BEAR  VALLEY  was  the  name  of  the  busy 
mining  town  nearest  us  on  our  mining 
place  in  the  Lower  Sierras,  It  troubled  our 
sense  of  fitness  to  call  a  town  a  valley,  but  it 
was  fixed  by  custom  and  fitness  ;  for  this  had 
been  a  happy  hunting-ground  of  the  grizzlies. 
Acorns  of  the  long  variety,  tasting  like  chest- 
nuts, abounded  here  as  well  as  the  usual  smaller 
varieties,  while  the  rich  oily  nut  of  the  pihon- 
pine  made  their  delight.  These  acorns  and 
pihones  were  the  chief  bread-supplies  of  the 
Indians  also  who  did  not  give  them  up  easily, 
and  consequently  bear-skeletons  and  Indian 
skulls  remained  to  tell  the  tale  to  the  miners 
who  came  in  to  the  rich  "diggings"  tliere, 
American  rifles,  then  the  pounding  of  quartz 
42 


MY    GRIZZLY    BEAR.  43 

mills  and  strange  shrieks  of  steam  engines  drove 
them  away,  and  only  the  name  remained. 

To  my  objection  of  using  "  valley "  and 
"  town  "  as  one  and  the  same,  I  was  told  best 
let  it  alone  or  worse  would  follow,  for  there  was 
a  strong  party  intending  to  change  the  name  of 
the  place  to  "  Simpkinsville,"  and  how  would 
I  like  that  ?  The  postmaster  was  the  Simpkins 
—  a  tall,  "showy"  young  man  with  an  ambitious 
wife  much  older  than  himself  ;  he  was  a  London 
footman  and  she  Irish,  active,  energetic,  with  a 
good  head,  and  with  ambitions  for  her  Simpkins. 
That  neither  of  them  could  read  or  write  was  a 
trivial  detail  that  did  not  seem  to  disturb  the 
public.  Men  would  swing  down  from  horse  or 
wagon-box,  go  in  and  select  from  the  loose  pile 
of  letters  their  own  and  those  of  their  neigh- 
bors, and  have  their  drink  at  the  bar  over  which 
Simpkins  presided  (they  kept  a  tavern  and  the 
post-office  was  only  a  little  detail). 

But  with  the  instinct  of  a  man  who  "had 
seen  the  world"  toward  people  of  somewha.t  the 


44  MY    GRIZZLY    BEAR. 

same  experience,  the  postmaster  treated  us  with 
the  largest  courtesy,  for  everything  with  a  capi- 
tal "  F  "  on  it  was  laid  aside  for  us.*  Isaac, 
our  part-Indian  hunter,  who  generally  rode  in 
for  the  mail  did  not  read  either,  and  often  had 
to  make  return-trips  to  give  back  what  was  not 
ours.  It  was  in  the  time  of  Mr.  Buchanan's 
administration,  and  had  Simpkins  sent  in  a  peti- 
tion signed  as  it  would  have  been  by  the  hab- 
itues of  his  bar,  of  course  so  faithful  a  political 
servant  would  have  been  granted  this  small 
favor,  of  change  of  name.  You  may  be  sure  I 
lay  low  in  my  valley  to  avert  this  cruel  address 
on  my  letters. 

I  had  never  before  gone  up  to  this  property, 
and  now  it  was  chiefly  as  a  summer  open-air 
and  camping-out  tour  to  be  over  in  three  months, 
when  we  were  to  return  to  Paris  where  all  ar- 
rangements had  been  made  for  a  three-years 
stay. 

•  This  "  F  "  was  the  brand  on  all  the  tools  and  belongings  of  the 
works  —  in  these  countries  whatever  else  was  defied  the  brand  had  to 
be  respected. 


MY    GRIZZLY    BEAR.  45 

Although  the  bear  had  long  disappeared  from 
this  favorite  old  haunt  I  felt  nervous  about 
horseback  excursions.  Mountains  are  grim 
things  at  best,  but  all  those  deep  clefts  and 
thickets  in  ravines  and  horrid  stony  hill-slopes 
barred  me  from  any  but  the  beaten  stage  and 
wagon-roads,  with  our  cool,  brave  Isaac  to  drive 
me.  However,  there  was  one  view  Mr.  Fremont 
wanted  me  to  see  which  we  could  get  to  only 
on  horseback,  with  a  short  climb  at  the  peak  of 
the  mountain.  From  the  summit  we  could  see 
eighty  miles  off  the  line  of  the  San  Joaquin 
River,  defined  by  its  broad  belt  of  trees,  run- 
ning north  and  south  parallel  to  our  mountains  ; 
connecting  the  two  were  many  mountain  rivers 
crossing  the  broad  plain  and  glittering  like  steel 
ribbons  in  the  afternoon  sun  —  the  Merced,  the 
Stanislaus,  the  Tuolumne  and  others;  a  turn 
,  of  the  head  showed  the  peaks  of  the  Yosemite 
thirty  miles  off,  and  lines  of  blue  mountains 
back  to  the  everlasting  snow  of  Carson's  Peak 
—  a  stretch  of  a  hundred  and  fitty  miles. 


46  MY    GRIZZLY    BEAR. 

It  was  a  rough  ride  up,  and  rougher  climbing 
after  the  horses  could  go  no  further  and  had  to 
be  left  tied  to  trees  with  one  man  to  watch 
them  —  only  one  other  was  with  us;  our  party 
was  only  myself  and  my  daughter  with  her 
father  and  the  two  men. 

We  were  growing  more  and  more  enthusiastic 
as  glimpses  of  this  rare  view  came  to  us.  Mr. 
Fremont  told  us  the  distances,  which  only  singu- 
larly pure  mountain  air  could  have  let  the  eye 
pierce.  "  And  the  ear,  too,"  I  said.  "  We 
must  be  three  miles  from  the  village  and  yet 
how  near  sounds  the  barking  of  that  dog  !  " 

Dead  silence  fell  on  our  animated  people. 
They  listened,  as  the  rough,  low  bark  —  broader 
and  rougher  even  than  that  of  a  bull-dog  —  rose 
again,  sounding  really  close  to  us. 

I  never  question  any  acts  of  some  few  people 
but  I  was  surprised,  and  not  too  pleased,  to  find 
myself  hurried  back  down  the  steep,  stony  peak 
with  onl}^,  "  It  is  too  late  to  finish  the  climb  — 
we  must  hurry  —  do  not  speak  —  keep  all  your 


MY    GRIZZLY    BEAR.  47 

breath  for  walking."  And  hurry  we  did.  I  was 
fairly  lifted  along.  Mr.  Burke  had  disappeared 
and  was  now  with  Lee  bringing  the  horses  to 
meet  us  —  the  horses  refractory. 

Without  a  word  I  was  lifted  into  the  saddle 
—  Mr.  Fre'mont  gathered  up  my  reins  himself 
and  kept  close  to  my  side  —  and  we  fairly  scur- 
ried down  the  mountain,  I  shamelessly  holding 
to  the  saddle  as  the  steep  grade  made  me  dizzy. 
This  dizziness  so  preoccupied  me  with  the  fear 
of  fainting  that  I  felt  nothing  else.  We  gained 
the  stage-road  by  the  shortest  cut,  and  then  a 
loping  gallop  soon  brought  us  home,  where  I 
was  carefully  lifted  down  and  all  the  consider- 
ation and  care  which  they  dared  not  give  me  on 
the  hurried  ride  was  now  lavished  on  me.  I  had 
been  seriously  ill  not  long  before  and  could  not 
understand  why  I  was  so  roughly  hauled  along. 

There  was  reason  enough. 

It  was  no  dog,  but  a  grizzly  bear  that  made 
that  warning  bark,  and  we  were  very  close  to  it. 

My  ignorance  spared  me  the   shock   of  this 


48  MY    GRIZZLY    BEAR. 

knowledge,  but  the  practised  mountain  men 
knew  it  was  not  only  a  bear,  but  a  she-bear  with 
cubs.  They  knew  she  would  not  be  likely  to 
leave  her  cubs  at  that  hour  when  they  were  set- 
tling for  the  night  unless  we  came  nearer  or 
irritated  her  by  talking  and  noises.  Horses  are 
terribly  afraid  of  this  powerful  and  dangerous 
animal,  and  one  danger  was  that  our  horses 
would  break  away  and  run  for  safety  leaving  us 
to  the  chances  of  getting  off  on  foot.  There  I 
was  the  weak  link  in  the  chain.  My  daughter 
was  fleet  of  foot  and  so  steady  of  nerve  that 
she  was  told  the  truth  at  once,  and  did  her  part 
bravely  in  keeping  me  unaware  of  any  unusual 
condition.  Fortunately  our  riding  horses  were, 
each,  pets  and  friends,  and  only  required  to  be 
safe  with  their  masters  ;  Burke  had  got  back  in- 
stantly to  help  Lee,  and  once  mounted  we  were 
moved  by  one  intelligence,  one  will. 

Very  quickly  our  bright  drawing-room  filled 
with  eager  men  gun  in  hand.  Armed  men  rode 
down  the  glen  intent  on  that  bear  —  first  coming 


MY    GRIZZLY    BEAR, 


49 


to  get  all  information  of  the  exact  locality,  then 
to  ride  and  raise  the  countryside  for  a  general 
turnout  against  it.  For  every  one  had  kept 
from  "  the  Madam  "  the  fact  that  a  she-bear 
had  been  prowling  about  for  some  time  seeking 
what  she  could  devour ;  and  that  she  had  de- 
voured some  and  mangled  more  of  "  Quigley's 
hogs  "  —  Quigley  having  very  fine  and  profitable 
hogs  at  a  small  ranch  three  miles  from  us. 

Lights  frighten  off  wild  beasts.  I  had  no 
shame  in  illuminating  the  house  that  night. 
Men  laughed  kindly  over  it,  but  they  all  felt 
glad  I  had  come  off  so  safely,  and  next  day  I 
was  early  informed  that  the  cubs  were  all  killed. 
The  bear  went  as  usual  to  Quigley's  for  her  raw 
pork  supper,  the  digestion  of  a  bear  making 
this  a  pleasure  without  drawback,  but  the  stir 
about  the  place  was  evident  to  the  keen  senses 
of  the  grizzly  and  the  men  watched  that  night 
in  vain.  Her  tracks  were  plain  all  around 
about,  and  the  poor  thing  was  tracked  to  her 
return  to  her  cubs.     She  had  moved    them  — 


50  WY    GRIZZLY    BEAR. 

made  sure  they  were  all  dead,  and  her  instinct 
sent  her  off  into  close  hiding. 

The  watch  was  kept  up,  but  she  was  wary^ 
and  kept  away. 

At  length  one  dark  night  the  Quigley  people 
heard  sounds  they  were  sure  came  from  the 
bear  though  the  hogs  in  the  big  pen  were  quiet. 
They  were  stifled  sounds  blown  away  by  a  high 
wind.  There  was  but  one  man  in  the  house, 
and  he  said  his  wife  would  not  let  him  go  after 
them  ;  it  was  so  desperately  dark  the  odds  would 
be  all  against  him. 

The  woman  said  she  was  not  sure  it  was  a 
bear.  She  half  thought  it  was  men  fighting,  an 
equally  great  danger  in  that  isolated  way  of 
living.  So  they  shut  their  ears  and  their  hearts 
although  human  groans  and  stifled  blown-away 
cries  made  them  sure  it  was  no  animal. 

The  sounds  passed  on.  In  the  morning  they 
went  to  the  wagon-road  which  ran  near  their 
inclosure  and  found  a  trail  of  blood.  Followed 
up  it  led  to  a  little  creek  close  by  with  steep 


I 


MY    GRIZZLY    BEAR.  51 

clay  banks.  Dead,  his  face  downward  in  the 
water,  lay  a  young  man  in  a  pool  of  blood  — 
shockingly  mangled  across  the  lower  part  of  the 
body.  His  sufferings  must  have  been  great,  but 
his  will  and  courage  had  proved  greater. 

He  had  not  been  torn  by  a  bear  as  was  first 
thought,  but  by  a  ball  from  his  own  pistol. 
This  was  found,  a  perfectly  new  pistol,  in  his 
trousers  pocket ;  the  scorched  clothing  showing 
it  had  gone  off  while  in  the  pocket.  The  trail 
was  followed  back,  leading  to  a  brook  where  he 
must  have  stooped  to  drink  when  the  pistol, 
carrying  a  heavy  ball,  went  off.  Yet  such  was 
his  courage  and  determination  that  he  crawled 
that  long  way  in  a  state  plainly  told  by  the 
places  where  he  had  rolled  in  agony  —  the  last 
was  where  he  made  his  vain  appeal  for  help  at 
the  Quigley  house.  Perhaps  he  fell  face  down- 
ward into  the  shallow  stream  and  was  mercifully 
drowned. 

His  good  clothing,  a  geologist's  hammer,  and 
some  specimens  of  quartz  wrapped  in  bits  of  a 


52  MY    GRIZZLY    BEAR, 

German  newspaper,  told  of  an  educated,  worthy 
sort  of  man.  But  there  was  nothing  to  identify 
him,  and  the  poor  fellow  was  never  inquired 
after.  One  of  the  many  who  came  from  afar 
with  high  hope,  and  whose  life  was  summed  up 
in  that  most  pathetic  of  words,  "  Missing." 

The  grizzly  had  disappeared  and  was,  I  am 
told,  the  last  ever  known  in  that  valley,  which 
still  has  as  postmark  for  the  town,  "  Bear  Val- 
ley ; "  it  is  to  be  presumed  the  succeeding  post- 
masters have  been  men  who  knew  the  whole  of 
the  alphabet  as  well  as  the  letter  ''  F." 


IV. 


BESIEGED. 


COLONEL,  the  Hornitas  League  has  jumped 
the  Black  Drift !  " 

"  What  does  that  mean  ?"  I  asked. 

"Only  mining  work,'"  was  the  answer.  "  You 
had  best  go  to  sleep  again." 

And  in  my  blissful  ignorance  go  to  sleep  I 
did.  It  was  in  the  hot  summer  weather,  that 
furnace-like  heat  of  the  dry  season  in  a  deep 
valley  of  the  Sierras  where  the  only  touch  of 
cooler  air  comes  after  the  night  has  shaded  the 
heated  earth  ;  and  it  was  in  the  dim  dawn  of 
this  fresher  hour  that  the  cautious,  low-spoken 
call  was  made  to  "  the  Colonel."  * 

*  Richard  Dana  of  Two  Years  Before  the  Mast  made  us  a  delight- 
ful visit  in  our  mountains.  He  told  us  that  while  every  man  he  met 
was  a  colonel  who  was  not  a  judge,  yet  from  Stockton  \i\^'^the 
Colonel"  meant  Mr.  Fremont  —  hence  the  localism  repeated  here. 

53 


54  BESIEGED. 

As  Mr.  Fremont  often  rode  to  the  mines,  three 
miles  away,  before  the  sun  was  over  the  range, 
it  was  no  surprise  to  find  on  waking  that  he  had 
had  his  coffee  and  gone.  How  early  I  was  not 
told  ;  nor  was  I  let  to  know  anything  of  the  dan- 
ger that  was  calling  out  the  best  thinking  and 
best  action  of  all  our  people. 

In  my  ignorance,  we  went  about  our  day  as 
usual.  We  could  drive  out  quite  late  after  the 
sun  was  well  behind  the  western  range,  but  all 
the  long  day  we  had  to  find  in-door  resources. 
This  was  to  the  advantage  of  the  young  peo- 
ple, for  we  had  found  some  regular  occupation 
necessary  and  made  it  of  what  was  around  us. 
Our  agent  had  left  an  unusually  good  collection 
of  books  (he  had  recently  died)  and  though  it 
was  a  very  irregular  course,  yet  we  secured  a 
lot  of  amusement  as  well  as  instruction  from 
these.  In  P'rench  there  were  sev^eral  fine  his- 
tories of  France  illustrated  from  historical  por- 
traits and  pictures,  and  good  memoirs  on  the 
French    Revolution.      Both    the    young   people 


I 


BESIEGED,  55 

knew  Paris  well  and  we  could  locate  events  in 
palaces  and  parks  and  streets  they  were  familiar 
with.  A  superb  Shakespeare,  also  illustrated, 
gave  more  than  enough  for  English  study,  but 
there  were  also  many  of  the  English  classics, 
and,  what  fascinated  us,  works  on  medical  juris- 
prudence, and  selected  cases  of  circumstantial 
evidence.  From  these  I  would  read  ahead  — 
I  being  pilot-engine  for  my  young  train  —  and 
put  limits  for  their  reading  on  which  we  would 
talk  together  after. 

We  were  only  three,  but  our  differing  ages 
and  countries  made  variety  in  thinking.  An 
English  friend  had  asked  us  to  let  his  son,  a 
delightful  lad  of  seventeen,  go  with  us  for  the 
few  months  we  were  to  be  absent  from  New 
York  —  the  boy  had  outgrown  his  strength  and 
was  ordered  travel  and  rest.  My  daughter  was 
much  younger,  but  accustomed  to  grown-up 
minds,  as  she  had  never  been  sent  from  home. 
These  two  followed  eagerly  and  intelligently  my 
hap-hazard  lead  and  we  all  found  real  pleasure 


56  BESIEGED. 

in  it.  And  the  tall  young  Douglass  became 
steadily  stronger  and  more  boyish.  I  felt  very 
responsible  for  the  health  of  this  precious  eld- 
est son,  and  we  all  grew  attached  to  him  for 
himself.  I  think  a  clean-natured,  well-bred  boy 
of  a  happy  affectionate  nature  is  a  charming 
associate.  All  the  more  if  he  is,  as  a  boy  should 
be,  full  of  healthy,  bold  explosive  life. 

This  day  we  settled  to  our  talk-lesson,  but 
soon  I  noticed  their  hearts  were  not  in  it.  And 
at  luncheon  their  wholesome  young  appetites 
had  failed  theni.  The  two  little  boys  were  also 
restless,  for  "  Isaac  wouldn't  let  them  go  out  to 
play  in  the  barn,"  and  it  was  not  possible  for 
them  to  play  out  of  doors  during  the  fierce  heat 
of  the  day. 

It  does  not  take  long  for  the  mind  to  group 
little  things  into  proofs  of  some  larger  disturb- 
ance. Too  soon  I  had  to  know  that  that  early 
morning  messenger  was  a  herald  of  danger  — 
of  almost  inevitable  conflict  and  loss  of  life. 

It  is  too  long  to  explain  here  ;  but  a  bad  local 


BESIEGED.  57 

decision  had  lately  been  made  by  the  State 
Court  which  gave  to  all  persons  the  right  to 
enter  and  hold  any  "unoccupied  "  mining  claim 
or  mine.  This  was  so  worded  (and  so  intended) 
that  the  large  body  of  those  who  had  not  bought 
and  regularly  worked  such  property  could  seize 
and  legally  hold  the  property  of  those  who  had, 
"  if  unoccupied."  All  the  trouble  arose  from 
the  construction  of  that  word,  "  unoccupied," 
A  small  miner  working  alone  would  go  to  his 
dinner,  and  immediately  men  watching  for  the 
chance  would  seize  and  hold  against  him  his 
lawful  property. 

These  outsiders  had  organized  into  a  League 
and  were  bound  to  help  one  another.  Property- 
holders,  surprised  by  such  a  construction,  were 
not  ready  on  their  side  with  organized  resist- 
ance. And  the  chief  Judge*  was  openly  in 
sympathy  with  this  League. 

Now  Americans  much  prefer  to  live  peace- 
ably, but  they  will  not  give  up  their  rights.  If 
it  conies  to  trying  force  you  know  their  record 

*  Judge  Terry. 


58  BESIEGED. 

as  a  fighting  nation  is  made.  Consequently  in  a 
brief  time  tliere  were  over  fifty  cases  entered  for 
trial  where  men  had  been  killed  or  had  to  kill 
others  in  defense  of  their  rights. 

We  had  in  California  at  that  time  a  bad  ele- 
ment of  foreigners.  It  was  believed  the  English 
authorities  over  the  convict  settlements  of  Aus. 
tralia  did  not  "  take  notice  "  of  the  shiploads  of 
escaping  convicts  crowding  into  California. 

We  had  enough  bad  Americans,  but  they, 
being  American,  had  not  that  long  inheritance 
of  want  and  crime  known  to  older  countries. 
These  criminal  outcasts,  exulting  in  their  escape 
from  Botany  Bay  and  Sydney,  finding  themselves 
in  such  thinly  scattered  and  far-apart  settlements 
without  any  visible  officers  of  the  law,  felt  free 
to  follow  every  bad  impulse.  Many  honest  but 
misled  men  were  at  first  in  this  League,  men 
who  believed  all  the  lands  free  because  we  had 
bought  the  country  and  they  were  told  Mexican 
titles  were  of  no  value  and  only  actual  settlers 
could  huld  lands  and  n)ines.     To  this  ij^norant 


BESIEGE®.  59 

though  honest  body  came  the  element  which 
only  cared  for  this  legalized  chance  at  plunder. 
The  Arabs  say  "  A  court  of  law  is  not  a  court 
of  justice:"  justice  would  settle  this  question 
properly,  but  the  letter  of  this  law  was  against 
justice. 

On  our  place  was  a  fairly  orderly  industrious 
and  prospering  people  in  settlements  of  small 
towns  and  mining  camps  scattered  over  a  dozen 
miles  of  mountain  country,  isolated  in  sudden 
emergencies.  And  our  nearest  large  town  and 
first  telegraph  was  eighty  miles  away,  at  Stock- 
ton on  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco. 

The  invading  party  numbered  over  a  hundred. 
They  came  from  Hornitas,  a  place  of  evil  fame 
just  below  our  mountains  —  a  gambling  nest 
such  as  Bret  Harte  tells  of  —  a  place  "where 
everything  that  loathes  the  law  "  found  congen- 
ial soil  and  flourished. 

These  men  announced  we  should  get  no  help 
from  outside,  for  they  would  let  no  messenger 
go  through ;  they  had  guarded  every  ford  and 


6o  BESIEGED. 

pass,  and  had  their  marksmen-watchmen  out 
everywhere.  Our  local  sheriff  actually  declined 
to  call  out  a  posse.  "  No  use,"  he  said  ;  for  the 
"  Hornitas  crowd  "  were  the  terror  of  our  neigh- 
borhood. They  had  bribed  the  night  watchman 
to  leave  free  to  them  these  mines ;  a  group  of 
three  close  together  on  a  high  spur  of  the  moun- 
tains, which  then  had  been  carefully  worked  for 
four  years,  chiefly  by  experienced  Cornish  min- 
ers brought  over  by  the  Colonel, 

You  must  know  it  is  very  dangerous  to  dis- 
place the  "shoring  "  —  the  timbers  that  protect 
sides  and  roof  of  the  long  tunnels  —  but  the 
Hornitas  men  cared  nothing  for  the  future  of 
the  mine  ;  no  picks  and  slow  work  for  them. 
They  put  in  shallow  blasts  wherever  gold  showed 
and  were  already  ravaging  the  Black  Drift. 

In  the  two  otiier  mines  luckily  six  of  our  men 
had  been  still  at  work,  so  that  the  League  could 
not  enter  them  even  under  its  own  unjust  law. 
This  angered  them,  and  they  determined  to 
starve    these    miners    out    and    so    compel    the 


BESIEGED.  6l 

"unoccupied  "  state  they  required  in  order  to 
take  possession. 

Remember  tliat  this  property  had  been  bought, 
paid  for,  and  worked  for  years  under  a  United 
States  patent. 

These  three  mines  opened  out  high  up  the 
precipitous  mountain-side,  close  together,  on  a 
small  space  leveled  out  to  receive  the  "  dump  " 
and  allow  the  ox-wagons  to  load  and  turn  easily; 
they  were  reached  only  by  one  road  (with  a  few 
turn-outs)  cut  into  the  face  of  the  mountain. 
Sixteen  hundred  feet  below  was  a  ravine  open- 
ing to  the  Merced  River  where  were  the  mills 
with  water-power.  The  opposite  mountain  rose 
so  near  and  so  high  that  it  was  always  dark  down 
below  in  the  deep,  deep  ravine  with  its  jagged 
walls  of  rocks  and  stunted  shrubs.  Its  appro- 
priate name  was  Hell's  Hollow.  A  fall  into  it 
^  was  death.     Bad  ground  for  a  fight,  you  see. 

Yet  on  this  confined  space  were  gathered  the 
men  of  the  League  ;  and  for  our  side,  only  the 
Colonel  and  a  few  of   our  friends.     Knowing 


62  BESIEGED, 

how  easily  a  word  can  kindle  into  wrath  ill- 
meaning  and  unreasoning  people  he  preferred 
to  be  almost  alone.  It  was  hard  to  hear  the 
shouts  and  blasts  in  the  Black  Drift  and  know 
the  good  work  of  years  was  being  endangered; 
but  to-morrows  did  not  exist  for  the  spoilers,  and 
the  day  was  theirs.  The  League,  baffled  by  the 
fact  of  six  men  in  the  other  two  mines  (which 
connected)  gave  answering  shouts,  and  swore 
they  would  starve  out  our  faithful  men  who 
steadily  refused  to  surrender  the  mines. 

The  captain  of  the  miners  was  one  of  the  six, 
an  excellent  quiet  American  who  had  a  slim 
little  bright  wife  from  Virginia  and  a  brood  of 
small  children  who  played  like  chamois  on  the 
sharp  mountain  back  of  their  cottage  near  the 
mines.  This  little  woman  bore  the  waiting  and 
the  threats  quietly  and  bravely  ;  doing  her  part 
to  "help  the  Colonel." 

Above  all  Mr.  Fremont  wished  to  prevent 
violence  —  the  first  shot  would  have  brought 
out   all   the   delayed  evil    of   one   side,  all   the 


BESIEGED,  63 

restrained  indicfiiation  of  the  other.  Once  besrun 
it  would  have  been  a  deadly  contest — not  only 
at  the  mines,  but  followed  up  wherever  there 
was  plunder  to  find  or  a  friend  to  be  avenged. 

He  hoped  that  by  quietly  talking  with  them, 
by  keeping  off  new  sources  of  dispute,  above  all 
by  keeping  away  drink  from  them  they  would, 
as  there  were  Americans  among  them,  come  to 
a  better  mind  and  see  violence  would  not  ulti- 
mately profit  them.  Our  men  who  had  rapidly 
held  a  council  with  him  (while  I  was  asleep ! ) 
saw  this  necessity  for  silence  and  forbearance 
and  seconded  him  in  every  way.  They  guarded 
the  road  and  the  only  path  anything  but  a  goat 
could  move  on,  leading  along  from  the  village 
to  the  mines  ;  the  enemy  had  cut  off  communi- 
caiion  from  the  mines,  and  our  men  claimed  it 
fair  play  to  cut  off  communication  to  the  mines. 
So  the  danger  from  whiskey  was  kept  back,  in 
spite  of  various  efforts  to  get  it  through.  ' 

An  express  through  to  Stockton  to  rouse  good 
friends  there  to  telegraph  to  the  Governor  for 


64  BESIEGED. 

State  aid,  as  the  sheriff  refused  to  do  his  duty, 
had  been  immediately  attempted  and  as  imme- 
diately stopped  by  the  guards  of  the  League. 
They  on  their  side  were  prepared  for  all  moves. 
As  the  Colonel  had  to  be  with  his  men  at 
the  mines,  and  no  communication  was  allowed 
between  them  and  the  village  or  the  steam-mill, 
he  had  to  leave  this  and  all  else  to  the  care  of 
those  managing  the  works  —  chiefly  two  very 
unusually  well-qualified  men,  the  book-keeper 
being  one ;  a  man  whose  silence  was  as  pro- 
verbial as  his  cool  courage  and  high  honor.  He 
was  to  keep  a  lookout  for  us  also. 

Our  two  brave,  faithful  colored  men,  Isaac  and 
Lee,  were  our  guard  —  this  duty  the  Colonel 
trusted  to  them  —  and  as  strange  horsemen 
were  riding  all  around  firing  off  pistols,  the 
little  boys  too  were  not  to  leave  the  house. 
This  arranged  rapidly,  in  the  early  dawn  — 
while  I  slept  —  he  was  off  to  the  mines. 

When  a  danger  is  safely  over  only  those  who 
wore  through  its  agony  of  suspense  can  realize 


BESIEGED.  65 

what  vague  horrors  beset  the  mind.  The  year 
before  I  had  been  in  Paris  during  the  time  of 
the  Indian  mutiny  ;  its  hideous  facts  filled  the 
public  papers,  and  we  had  some  English  friends 
in  such  distress  as  can  never  be  forgotten.  In 
this  League  were  some  elements  as  evil  and 
cruel  as  the  Sepoys.  Our  men  had  been  ordered 
what  to  do  for  us  if,  as  was  threatened,  the 
house  was  burned  and  ourselves  attacked. 
Death  from  a  friendly  hand  was  more  kind  than 
chances  among  such  wild  beasts  as  bad  men 
become  when  intoxicated. 

It  seemed  unreal  —  impossible,  that  in  my 
own  country,  in  the  State  for  which  my  father 
and  my  husband  had  done  so  much,  on  our  own 
ground  and  in  our  own  home  I  and  my  young 
children  should  have  to  face  such  a  condition. 
And  have  to  bear  it  all  so  helplessly ;  without 
knowledge  even  of  what  was  going  on  but  three 
miles  from  us.  The  only  certainties  to  give 
comfort  were  that  no  firing  had  been  heard, 
and  no  whiskey  allowed  to  get  through. 


66  BESIEGED. 

Towards  evening  the  policy  of  moderation 
and  patience  began  to  tell.  Standing  under  a 
sun  of  over  a  hundred  degrees,  with  no  space  to 
move  about  and  no  food  to  eat,  had  tamed  the 
enemy  into  offering  a  truce  for  the  night. 
Doubts  and  disagreements  were  at  work  among 
them.  The  better  men  would  not  join  in  vio- 
lence, without  which  they  now  saw  they  could 
not  carry  out  their  plan  of  holding  these  mines. 
They  proposed  to  "sleep  on  it"  and  begin 
afresh  next  day,  demanding  everything  should 
remain  as  they  left  it. 

But  little  Mrs.  Caton  rose  against  this.  She 
said  her  husband  should  have  food.  She  made 
her  way  through  the  packed  crowd,  a  little  creat- 
ure but  a  great  heart,  carrying  a  big  basket  of 
provisions  and  —  a  revolver.  Her  finger  was 
on  the  trigger  as  she  pushed  forward. 
.  "  I  shoot  the  first  man  that  hinders  me.  You 
wouldn't  like  to  be  shot  by  a  woman  !  But  I'll 
shoot  to  kill.  You've  just  got  to  let  me  carry 
his  supper  in  to  Caton.     You  have  your  quarrel 


BESIEGED.  67 

with  the  Colonel  about  mines  and  lands  and 
you  can  fight  that  out  with  him.  But  I'm  a 
poor  woman  that's  got  only  my  husband  — 
and  five  children  for  him  to  work  for.  You 
sha'n't  take  his  life  for  your  quarrels  !  He's 
only  doing  his  duty.  He's  been  cap'n  of  these 
mines  four  years  and  he'll  stand  by  them  till 
the  Colonel  orders  him  out.  And  I  stand  by 
Caton.     So  let  me  pass." 

And  with  her  uplifted  revolver  waving  like  a 
fan  towards  one  and  then  another,  they  fell  back 
and  let  her  enter  the  mine — some  laughing, 
some  praising  her,  some  swearing  at  her.  She 
carried  not  only  food  but  ammunition  ;  and  three 
revolvers  hung  from  her  waist  under  her  skirts. 
She  "  stood  by  Caton."  Then  the  League  set 
their  watch  at  the  mouths  of  the  mines  and 
returned  to  the  village  for  the  night. 

The  rush  of  relief  at  seeing  the  Colonel  made 
me  realize  what  I  had  been  fearing  —  and  it 
was  all  to  begin  again  with  morning  ! 


68  BESIEGED. 

He  had  to  stand  by  his  men  on  the  spot.  He 
felt  it  already  a  victory  to  have  warded  off  action 
by  discussion,  to  have  carried  them  through  a 
day  without  violence  and  without  drinking.  All 
we  could  do  was  not  to  distress  him  by  showing 
our  fears  but  to  help  him  to  go,  quietly,  and 
refreshed  by  sleep  and  home,  to  another  day  of 
chances.  Then  to  wait  —  to  wait  with  a  brain 
growing  hot  and  benumbed  with  one  fixed  terror  ! 

If  only  we  could  get  word  to  the  Governor. 

But  our  expresses  had  all  been  turned  back 
and  warned  that  any  fresh  attempt  would  be 
met  by  a  rifle  ball. 

Then  I  was  told  what  my  two  young  people 
had  done. 

They  had  had  man}-  climbing  walks  up  the 
mountain  back  of  our  house  —  many  rides  all 
about  the  country-side  and  with  good  glasses 
had  studied  out  future  rides  on  the  eastern 
face  of  the  mountain,  from  whose  uppermost 
narrow  level  the  Yosemite  Falls  showed  glitter- 
ing  and  seemed  near,  though  thirty  miles   dis- 


i 


BESIEGED.  69 

tant.  They  knew  dry  creek  beds  and  thick- 
ets of  manzanita  and  chapparal  which  would 
effectually  hide  a  horse  carefully  led  up  to  and 
across  the  summit  —  then  the  rider  could  mount 
and  make  as  good  time  as  night  and  rough,  un- 
known, untracked  mountains  allowed,  down  to 
the  Merced  River  —  following  the  river  about 
eight  miles  up  to  a  large  mining  camp  where 
Isaac  knew  the  miners — he  had  hunted  and 
"  prospected "  all  around  about  us  for  many 
years,  and  with  Isaac's  name  as  voucher  and 
passport,  there  were  men  there  who  "would  see 
him  through  "  to  Coulterville  ;  Coulterville  being 
a  town  and  mining  settlement  about  twenty 
miles  to  the  northeast,  and  of  a  steady,  law-abid- 
ing character. 

Douglass  had  been  refused  permission  to  go 
in  the  early  dawn  with  the  Colonel  —  his  friend's 
son  must  not  be  risked  —  but  stay  inactive  he 
could  not  while  danger  pressed  on  us,  and  so 
the  two  thought  up  this  move  to  the  northeast 
while  all    the  watching  was  directed  west  and 


7©  BESIEGED, 

south.  With  Isaac  abetting,  the  best  route  had 
been  studied  out,  and  as  dusk  fell  the  dear  boy 
had  got  off,  leading  my  daughter's  sure-footed 
mountain-bred  mare  "  Ayah."  *  He  was  already 
far  when  the  Colonel  got  home,  I  had  not  been 
told,  for  I  could  not  have  consented. 

But  we  both  felt  deeply  his  devotion  to  us. 

And  it  was  another  strength  for  Mr.  Fre'mont 
to  hope  that  by  way  of  Coulterville  a  messenger 
could  get  off  without  suspicion  ;  a  day's  hard 
riding  to  Stockton  "  eighty  miles  away "  ;  the 
brief  delay  for  the  Governor's  answer  —  then 
the  swift  ride  back  with  announcement  of  his 
support.  Fresh  horses  everywhere  were  only  a 
matter  of  money  ;  all  lay  in  the  success  of  the 
first  messenger  getting  away  from  our  place  and 

the  besieging  League. 

The  safe  hours  of  kindly  night  went  all  too 
fast.  With  the  rising  of  the  sun  we  were  again 
left  to  watch  and  fear ;  with  now  the  added  anx- 
iety for  Douglass. 

•  The   Hindoo  name  for  bearer  or  nurse;  Little  Henry  and  his 
Bearer  was  a  Sunday  school  classic  in  old  days. 


1 


BESIEGED.  71 

From  one  window  was  a  long  stretch  of  view, 
past  the  steam-mill  and  up  the  mountain-side 
to  where  a  sharp  bend  in  the  road  from  the 
mines  was  clearly  defined,  its  yellowish  level 
and  the  side-cut  glaring  out  in  the  hot  sunshine. 
Often,  at  the  usual  hour  for  the  return  from  the 
mines,  the  little  boys  vied  in  watching  that 
point  where  just  one  flash  of  the  swift  horse 
showed  black  against  the  sunset  sky,  and  the 
level  tawny  road  then  was  lost  in  the  chapparal, 
hiding  the  descent  into  the  valley;  "Father's 
coming  !  I  saw  him  first  !  "  was  the  glad  cry. 

Now,  at  this  window,  with  sight  and  feeling 
concentrated  on  this  bend  of  the  road,  I  stayed 
while  the  dreadful  time  moved  slowly  on.  Isaac 
permitted  my  little  men  to  comfort  themselves 
by  climbing  into  a  thick-leaved  oak,  where  they 
obeyed  the  order  for  silence  —  the  hush  of  dread 
was  on  us  all. 

While  we  watched  the  mountain-road  a  new 
danger  came  up  from  the  village. 

A  note  was   brought   from    there    by  a  man 


72  BESIEGED, 

Isaac  knew  to  be  a  friend — no  other  would 
have  ventured  into  our  inclosure  while  he  and 
his  dog  "  Rowdy  "  kept  watch  and  ward  —  and 
with  the  note  was  a  verbal  message  that  "  the 
answer  must  be  at  Bates  Tavern  by  sundown." 

It  was  addressed  to  me,  and  informed  me  that 
at  a  meeting  held  at  Bates  Tavern  the  night 
before  it  had  been  "  Resolved "  that  I  should 
be  allowed  twenty-four  hours  to  leave  the  place 
—  that  an  escort  would  see  me  across  the 
mountain  down  to  ihe  plain  —  that  no  harm 
should  be  done  to  us  and  that  I  could  take  my 
children  and  my  clothes.  But  that  if  I  was  not 
gone  within  the  twenty-four  hours  the  house 
would  be  burned  and  I  must  "  take  the  conse- 
quences." 

This  was  signed  :  "  For  all  prisnt  " 

"  Denis  O'Brien, 

Presdintr 

Even  in  the  first  moment  I  felt  pleased  it  was 
not  an  American  name  signing  this  document. 

"  They  mean   mischief,"   Isaac  said.     "  They 


BESIEGED.  73 

want  to  entice  the  Colonel  away  from  the 
mines." 

He  was  sorely  angered  and  troubled.  His 
Indian  blood  boiled  for  revengeful  action,  but 
Indian  tactics  made  him  submit  —  apparently  — 
for  we  were  at  a  woful  disadvantage.  Myself 
and  my  young  daughter,  two  little  boys  and 
the  two  good  women  who  had  come  with  us 
from  home,  with  only  Isaac  and  Lee  and  the 
dogs  for  guard ;  that  was  the  whole  garrison. 
That  revenge  would  be  sure  and  wide-spread 
was  a  comfort  to  Isaac  —  but  revenge  cannot 
restore. 

Isaac  learned  there  had  been  decided  opposi- 
tion to  this  move  against  the  family,  but  the 
better  men  had  gone  to  the  mines. 

Mr.  O'Brien,  President,  and  his  faction  re- 
mained at  the  tavern,  and  if  they  should  grow 
wild  from  drinking  the  lookout  for  us  was  bad. 
The  near  chance  of  meeting  a  grizzly  bear  had 
unnerved  me,  but  a  wild  animal  is  a  simple  dan- 
ger compared  with  the  complicated  horrors  of 


74  BESIEGED. 

a  man  brought  down  to  animal  nature  and 
made  furious  by  drink. 

To  gain  time  I  sent  word  that  an  answer 
would  be  given  them. 

Then,  back  to  my  watch. 

At  least  the  brain  had  been  stirred,  and  a  tide 
of  anger  had  displaced  the  benumbing  fear. 

And  later  in  the  day,  not  from  mountain  or 
village,  but  from  the  Indian  encampment  back 
of  us  in  the  hills  came  our  dear  English  boy, 
looking  fresh  and  leisurely  as  though  just  in 
from  the  usual  ride, 

"  Douglax  !  Douglax  !  "  shouted  the  boys  (what 
does  not  the  small  boy  see  !)  as  they  caught  the 
first  glimpse  of  his  white  turbaned  head.  An 
East  Indian  muslin  "  puggaree  "  wound  round 
his  hat  had  been  agreed  on  as  the  signal  of  vic- 
tory—  and  he  sang  out  a  theery  "  all  right!" 
as  tired  "  Ayah  "  made  for  her  stable. 

Then,  horse  and  man  refreshed,  we  had  de- 
tails ;  the  main  facts  of  safety  and  success  were 
so  good  we  made  him  wait  until  he  had  eaten. 


BESIEGED.  75 

Then,  Isaac  in  the  doorway,  his  gun  between 
his  knees  and  his  dog  at  his  feet,  and  Lee 
beside  him,  with  the  little  boys  and  the  good 
women  listening,  and  his  fellow-plotter  serenely 
enjoying  their  success,  we  all  heard  his  report. 

He  had  started  as  soon  as  dusk  set  in,  Isaac's 
directions  and  the  stars  guiding,  following  up 
the  ravine  where  overhanging  bushes  hid 
*'  Ayah "  as  she  very  unwillingly  was  led  up 
the  mountain  at  her  regular  time  for  rest.  After 
the  crest  was  turned  he  could  mount ;  then 
along  shelving  slopes  with  steep  descents,  to 
the  river  ;  keeping  to  it  as  well  as  giant  bowld- 
ers and  steep,  projecting  spurs  of  hills  with 
rolling-stone-faces  allowed,  he  came,  towards 
midnight,  to  the  bend  and  little  meadow  where 
cabins  and  tents  and  a  smouldering  fire  showed 
he  had  reached  the  camp,  which  roused  at  the 
sound  of  his  approach  ;  but  Isaac's  name  was 
the  countersign  and  brought  out  the  friend  asked 
for.  Instantly  the  news  was  given  it  was  met 
by  heartiest  sympathy  and    action.     Only  the 


y6  BESIEGED. 

brief  halt  to  saddle  up,  to  offer  the  unfailing 
coffee,  and  he  was  off  again  ;  this  time  cheered 
by  friendly  companionship,  and  sure  to  lose  no 
time  as  the  way  was  well  known  to  his  comrade. 
This  miner  knew  who  to  go  to  ;  and  quickly  two 
swift  riders  were  off  on  their  eighty-mile  stretch 
—  eighty  miles  of  open  plain  but  cut  by  deep 
rivers  only  one  of  which  had  a  bridge,  the  rest 
only  rope  ferries.  At  these  there  was  the  risk 
of  men  watching  on  the  side  of  the  League. 

Bret  Harte  has  peopled  this  country  with 
creations  "founded  on  fact,"  doubtless  —  men 
with  "  a  single  virtue  and  a  thousand  faults  " 
(fault  is  good),  but  to  me  the  ferries  of  the 
Stanislaus  and  the  Tuolumne,  the  lonely  mining 
camp  of  the  Merced  and  the  remote  mining 
towns  tell  a  better  story ;  of  patient  courage 
in  work,  and  a  brotherhood  for  maintaining 
order  and  the  law  —  quick  as  the  minute-men  of 
our  Revolution  in  united  support  of  the  right, 
and  with  a  largeness  of  good-humored  generos- 
ity special  to  our  far- West  life. 


BESIEGED.  77 

Coultervile  had  this  stamp.  They  had  lately 
raised  there  and  equipped  a  uniformed  Home 
Guard,  to  prevent  disturbances  and  maintain 
order,  and  this  body  volunteered  to  march  over 
at  once,  taking  the  nearer  stage-road. 

Before  sunset  they  would  be  on  the  ground 
at  the  mines.  By  sunset  our  express  to  Stock- 
ton would  be  there ;  the  telegrams  to  and  from 
the  Governor  sent  and  answered ;  and  return 
messengers  would  ride  through  the  night  so  that 
another  day  would  open  upon  the  arm  of  the  law 
outstretched  in  protection  over  our  far-away 
mountain  home. 

Our  book-keeper  had  given  Douglass  blank 
orders  for  all  outlays  throughout  —  but  all  would 
have  gone  well  even  without  this,  for  every- 
where we  had  struck  the  right  kind  of  men  — 
"  the  true  vein."  Men,  who  at  every  risk  and 
sacrifice,  in  those  early  days  built  what  was  best 
in  Americans  into  the  very  foundations  of  this 
empire  of  California  ;  not  amusing  to  read  of 
as  the  Bret  Harte  characters,  but  the  men  who 


78  BESIEGED. 

had  home  traditions  and  guarded  them,  and 
handed  them  down  broader  and  stronger  from 
fiery  trials. 

How  we  watched  now  for  that  horse  at  the 
turn  of  the  road  !  How  glad  came  the  shout 
from  the  oak-tree — how  blushing,  yet  proud 
and  glad,  was  that  refined  English  lad  as  we 
made  him  tell,  himself,  the  modest  brief  story 
of  his  night  ride,  alone,  with  the  stars  for  guide 

—  how  our  chief  relaxed  into  himself  in  this 
atmosphere  of  home  love  and  support — all  was 
good,  too  good  for  words  to  tell. 

"  They  also  serve  who  wait."  The  difficult 
waiting  was  almost  over  and  still  violence  was 
kept  at  bay.  Now,  the  glad  news  that  our  ex- 
presses had  gone  through  and  were  already  on 
the  return  was  spread  abroad.     It  was  the  best 

—  the  only  answer  to  Mr.  O'Brien.  During  the 
night  we  heard  angry  voices  of  horsemen  riding 
around,  firing  pistols,  and  otherwise  exhaling 
disappointment  and  defiance.  But  our  tired 
chief  slept,  and  so  did  Douglass ;    while  Isaac 


BESIEGED.  79 

lying  on  the  gallery  by  my  window  would  say  to 
me  in  his  low  cautious  voice  :  "  Don't  you  mind 
'em — they're  mad  —  but  they're  afraid  of  us 
now — we  are  bound  to  win  now." 

As  we  did.  The  better  men  refused  to  act 
longer  with  the  disorder-loving  faction. 

"  When  I  go  gunning  next  time  I'll  make  sure 
first  if  we  are  after  wild-duck  or  tame-duck," 
said  an  Arkansas  man  noted  and  feared  as  a 
reckless  leader ;  he  came  to  say  to  the  Colonel 
that  as  he  saw  they  were  in  the  wrong,  he 
wanted  to  stay  on  the  place  and  would  do  haul- 
ing of  quartz,  "  and  help  put  down  that  Hornitas 
crowd  if  they  stay  fooling  around  where  they've 
no  business."  This  alliance  was  a  great  gain, 
and  as  effective  in  its  way  as  the  arrival  of  the 
fine  Coulterville  Guard. 

Soon  came  the  expresses,  tired  but  triumph- 
ant. The  Governor  had  telegraphed  that  the 
Marshal  of  the  State  would  start  immediately 
with  a  force  of  five  hundred  men.  That,  if 
needed,  he   would   come    up   himself,   with   all 


8o  BESIEGED. 

force  required  to  restore  and  maintain  order. 
"Nye  of  Stoclcton  " — Nye,  whose  great  estab- 
lishments of  wagons  and  mules,  and  teamsters 
who  could  defend  their  convoys  as  well  as  drive 
their  twelve  and  twenty-mule  teams,  made  the 
transportation  before  railroads  —  Nye  was  di- 
rected to  send  up  the  arms  and  ammunition 
post-haste,  and  the  troops  the  same.  And  be- 
hold our  peaceful  valley  traversed  by  "  prairie- 
schooners  "  filled  with  fighting  men  and  munitions 
of  war  —  all  concentrating  on  our  twelve-acre 
inclosure  whose  grass  was  sadly  cut  up  thereby. 
We  had  put  up  a  big  barn  and  a  store-room 
my  French  cook  always  called  "/(?  grocerie." 
Supplies  for  months,  and  for  undefined  numbers 
of  friendly  visitors,  were  the  necessity  up  there. 
These  barrels  and  sacks  and  many  tins  and 
much  glass  were  now  piled  on  planks  laid  across 
barrels  under  the  shade  of  oaks  and  giant  pines 
(black  pepper  by  the  quart  scattered  on  the 
planks  to  head  off  the  ants).  Our  long  French 
trunks    and    boxes    of    delicate    clothing     (the 


BESIEGED.  8l 

"  clothes  "  I  was  to  have  safe  with  my  children  !) 
were  just  stacked  under  trees  ;  the  arms  and 
ammunition  were  the  precious  things  now,  and 
had  the  best  accommodation,  while  their  guard 
bivouacked  around  and  found  the  big  hay  loft 
not  a  bad  sleeping  place  —  three  years  later  how 
many  a  cherished  son  and  husband  would  have 
been  thankful  for  such  quarters  ! 

Of  course  there  were  lingering  threats  and 
more  or  less  disorder,  but  it  retreated  into  more 
congenial  quarters.  And  in  a  brief  time  all 
was  again  safely  back  in  smooth  working  order; 
even  the  Black  Drift.  For  of  what  use  was  the 
mine  when  they  could  not  carry  off  or  crush  the 
ore  ?  Not  at  our  mills —  nor  in  our  wagons  — 
nor  on  the  long  private  road  belonging  with  the 
works.  So  the  trouble  all  vanished  like  a  bad 
dream.  But  it  had  developed  far  more  good 
than  evil ;  and  organized  the  good  against  the 
evil. 

The  heat  and  the  nervous  strain  had  told 
against  me  and  as  Mr.  Fre'mont  had  to  go  to 


82  BESIEGED. 

San  Francisco  on  business  he  took  us  all  with 
him.  A  friend  "going  East"  left  us  his  house 
with  its  beautiful  gardens  and  grounds,  and  in 
that  reviving  sea  air  and  with  "  nothing  to  make 
me  afraid  "  I  ought  to  have  got  well.  Instead  of 
that  I  slipped  into  a  nervous  fever — a  horrid 
blur  of  bad  men  shooting  —  of  the  children 
stolen  —  of  a  riderless  horse  tearing  round  the 
bend  and  bolting  into  the  stable,  and  all  such 
horrors.  Poor  Douglass  came  in  to  say  good-by 
when  his  steamer  was  to  leave  and  I  could  only 
connect  it  with  his  ride  for  the  relief  and  forbid 
his  going.  He  was  a  distinguished  and  impor- 
tant man  when  I  saw  him  next,  at  his  own 
charming  country  house  in  England,  with  wife 
and  children  about  him. 

As  everything  ends — "■  tout  passe" — I  got 
well,  and  refused  out-and-out  to  stay  in  San 
Francisco.  As  we  had  to  remain  until  the 
imjust  law  was  repealed,*  and  that  would  require 
a  year,  I  went  back  to  the  mountains  "  to  stand 
by  Caton." 

'   By  Judge  Stephen  Field. 


BESIEGED.  8;^ 

To  wind  up  more  fully,  the  year  brought 
round  poetical  justice ;  for  the  judge  whose 
known  prejudices  caused  the  expression  of  this 
"law"  caused  also  his  own  downfall  by  an  act 
of  violence.  "  Hoist  by  his  own  petard  "  he  had 
to  fly  for  life  from  outraged  public  feeling.  The 
new  election  gave  us  a  judge  who  respected 
justice  as  well  as  law. 

All  the  same  our  three-months  summer  tour 
had  to  stretch  into  two-years  residence  ;  in  a 
country  more  remote,  more  isolated,  more  with- 
out any  resources  familiar  to  me  than  I  should 
have  chosen,  but  for  all  that  full  of  interest  and 
lasting  usefulness,  and  teaching  me  effectually 
what  one  can  do,  and  what  one  can  do  without. 


V. 

THE    HOUSE   THAT  JACK    BUILT. 

NOW  that  we  were  to  make  a  long  stay  the 
cottage  that  had  served  well  enough  for 
a  few  summer  months  seemed  too  cramped  for 
winter  quarters.  Two  boys  driven  in  by  stress 
of  weather  use  up  space.  "You  can  calculate  to 
a  fraction  the  displacement  caused  by  a  man-of- 
war,  but  there  is  no  calculating  the  displacement 
caused  by  a  baby." 

Just  how,  or  why,  small  boys  fill  up  and  over- 
flow usual  spaces  I  do  not  know;  I  only  know 
they  do.  And  I  know  that  it  is  a  sad  time 
when  they  grow  up  and  leave  only  silence  and 
order  in  the  empty  home. 

It  was  planned  we  should  stay  on  in  the 
charming  San  Francisco  house  with  its  gardens 
and  views  of  the  bay  while  a  "suitable''  house 
84 


THE    HOUSE    THAT   JACK    BUILT.  85 

was  built  on  the  mining  place,  quickly ;  every- 
thing was  done  quickly  out  there. 

The  local  idea  of  the  "  suitable  "  house  was 
the  horrid  Philistine  brick  two-story  concern 
out  of  all  harmony  with  the  grand  and  rugged 
scenery,  the  great  masses  of  gray  rock  and  the 
noble  pines  and  oaks  —  its  pert  snug  petty-suburb 
effect  would  have  offended  and  depressed  me. 

The  Colonel  understood  this  and  let  me  have 
my  own  idea,  which  was  to  be  a  surprise  for 
them  all,  for  I  was  to  go  up  ahead  and  have 
everything  ready  for  their  coming  for  Christmas. 

The  bad  decision  of  the  State  Court  kept 
every  mine-owner  in  the  position  of  a  sentinel, 
for  though  the  first  confusion  and  violence  had 
been  sternly  met  and  put  down  yet  in  many 
vexatious  law  proceedings  both  troublesome  and 
expensive  to  meet,  the  League  continued  to 
harass  and  hinder  peaceful  occupation.  This 
made  necessary  frequent  going  to  and  fro  between 
our  county  court  and  that  in  San  Francisco,  and 
I  took  advantage  of  a  coming  absence  of  this 


86  THE    HOUSE    THAT    JACK    BUILT. 

kind  to  carry  out  my  surprise.  That  I  had  only 
a  clear  two  weeks  did  not  matter  in  that  ener- 
getic young  community,  where  I  was  no  longer 
a  stranger  and  outsider,  for  a  danger  shared  in 
common  makes  a  bond  unknown  to  easy  living. 

All  my  plans  were  ready  and  fully  thought  out 
in  detail.  I  had  the  exiDcrienced  aid  of  the  silent 
book-keeper,  the  only  one  to  whom  I  told  my  idea 
—  the  Colonel  was  content  to  accept  whatever  my 
surprise  should  prove  to  be,  only  asking  a  certain 
limit  to  be  observed,  to  which  the  book-keeper 
and  myself  gravely  answered  that  the  thousands 
named  would  be  enough,  and  as  soon  as  he  drove 
away  we  all  went  to  work. 

The  agent  had  some  years  before  built  a 
roomy  one-story  cottage  and  fenced  in  about 
twelve  acres,  an  expensive  luxury  where  labor 
and  lumber  were  both  so  costly.  But  the  result 
was  lovely  park-like  grounds  where  the  protected 
grass  and  wild  flowers  were  in  beauty  and  per- 
fection, and  where  well-laid-out  paths  and  a 
carriage-drive  looked  orderly,  and  kept  order. 


THE    HOUSE    THAT    JACK    BUILT.  87 

Fine  use  had  been  made  of  natural  clumps  of 
flowering  shrubs  and  these  gave  a  look  of  long 
cultivation  to  the  grounds.  The  noble  evergreen 
oaks  and  towering  huge  pines  needed  no  care  of 
man  to  make  them  beautiful.  Also  there  was  a 
fine  garden  ;  and  everywhere,  in  the  garden,  on 
sunny  slopes,  and  all  around  the  cottage  was 
the  beautiful  pink  rose  of  Castile.  This  sweet 
rose  was  planted  everywhere  in  old  California 
and  grew  larger  and  more  fragrant  than  I  had 
ever  known  it,  even  in  old  gardens  in  Virginia 
where  it  was  always  profusely  grown  for  the  rose- 
water  every  good  housekeeper  made  at  home. 

My  idea  was  to  bring  together  and  add  to  the 
cottage  several  large  detached  buildings  of  one 
room  each  which  were  in  our  inclosure  ;  rooms 
needed  for  the  agency,  well  built  and  little  used. 

By  careful  management  of  the  ox-teams  these 
could  be  moved  on  rollers  (the  smooth  logs  were 
ready  and  waiting)  without  sacrificing  the  beauti- 
ful grass  and  millions  of  wild  flowers  just  coming 
up  with  the  rains.     The  roofs  could  be  kept  to 


88  THK    HOUSE    THAT    JACK    BUILT. 

one  level  and  a  step  or  two,  up  or  clown,  would 
connect  the  floors,  while  the  whole  should  be 
completed  by  a  very  broad  veranda,  connecting 
all,  on  two  sides.  In  the  dry  season  this  would 
be  a  summer  parlor  with  matting  laid  down  and 
cane  furniture  and  hammocks,  green  Venetian 
blinds  inclosing  the  whole.  Altogether,  the  low- 
lying  wide-spreading  cottage  would  have  the  look 
and  the  comfortable  uses  of  the  bungalow  of 
India.  It  would  be  a  form  of  shelter  tent  in 
keeping  with  trees  and  rocks  and  mountains. 

The  silent  book-keeper  had  picked  his  men, 
and  they  were  ready ;  the  steady  grizzled  man 
from  Maine  who  with  his  sons  had  the  hauling 
of  wood  for  the  mills  —  his  long  gray  beard  and 
bunchy  clothes  making  him  look  like  Kriss 
Kringle  as  he  walked  by  the  oxen  of  his  long 
team ;  the  capable  carpenter  directing  the  placing 
of  all  the  planks  and  shingles  where  they  should 
not  break  the  edges  of  the  drive  or  hurt  the  grass  ; 
the  men  who  sewed  sacks  for  the  ores  on  hand 
to  make  the  new  carpets  and  curtains. 


THE    HOUSE    THAT   JACK    BUILT.  89 

I  had  had  all  measures  taken,  and  bought  in 
one  of  our  own  towns  on  the  place  all  that 
was  needed.  The  prosperous  miner  loves  an 
occasional  plunge  into  luxury  and  nothing  is 
too  good  for  him  ;  hence  the  stores  in  mining 
towns  are  curiously  supplied  with  beautiful 
things  and  luxuries  of  all  kinds.  I  had  found 
there  fine  French  wall-papers,  fine  carpeting 
and  rugs,  and  rolls  of  woollen  and  silk  curtain- 
stuffs.  The  dining-room  was  made  the  work- 
room where  I  directed,  and  cheerful,  pleased 
men  helped  willingly  "  to  get  the  Madam's 
Christmas-box  ready." 

Indoors  aiid  out  it  was  all  activity  and  gayety. 
I  had  brought  up  only  one  small  boy,  the  eldest, 
whose  positive  genius  for  getting  into  accidents 
made  it  best  to  keep  him  near  me  (and  I  liked 
to  have  him).  It  was  a  good  sight  to  see  his 
wild  joy  over  the  traveling  house  {iine  maison 
qui  voyage  /)  with  its  long  team  of  docile  oxen 
minding  the  gee-haws  f  and  wo-ahs !  of  Kriss 
Kingle  as  surely  as  a  cat-boat  minds  her  helm 


go  THE    HOUSE    THAT    JACK    BUILT. 

in  the  hands  of  a  good  sailor.  And  his  pride 
was  immense  at  knowing  what  not  papa,  not 
any  of  the  family,  were  to  know  until  le  fete  d^ 
noel,  when  he  was  to  say  "  This  is  the  House 
that  Jack  built !  " 

We  two  did  the  errands  —  with  the  best  plan- 
ning something  gets  forgotten.  Early  in  the 
cool  December  mornings  we  would  go  off  to  the 
largest  town,  twelve  mountain-miles  away,  in  a 
strong  light  carriage,  Isaac  giving  a  last  look  to 
his  revolvers  as  he  put  one  on,  and  the  other 
under  the  cushion  beside  him. 

My  shopping  was  varied.  The  large  supplies 
were  on  their  way  up,  but  meantime  the  book- 
keeper sent  a  list  one  morning  in  which  steel 
bars  to  sharpen  picks  and  a  keg  of  gunpowder 
had  part ;  myself  I  needed  more  pretty  tea-cups 
and  table-glass  and  some  ribbons  and  colored 
glazed  cambrics  and  dotted  muslin  for  toilet- 
tables. 

On  the  way  back  Isaac  spied  a  hunter  coming 
down  a  mountain-side  with  a  deer  on  his  back. 


THE    HOUSE    THAT    JACK    BUILT.  91 

Never  could  he  pass  that.  A  fat  doe  in  early 
winter  is  the  hunter's  joy.  We  waited,  and 
bought  half,  all  the  man  would  sell,  and  gave 
him  a  lift  of  a  few  miles,  getting  in  before  sun- 
set with  all  our  mixed  shopping  of  venison  and 
ribbons  and  muslin  and  steel  bars  and  gunpowder 
and  French  china  and  glassware,  with  twenty- 
four  miles  of  mountain  air  and  sunshine  to  the 
good  of  my  health. 

There  was  a  brick  chimney  to  be  built  —  we 
had  already  a  large  one  of  stone  —  and  the  best 
bricklayer  of  the  country-side  came  to  put  it  up. 
Everything  was  ready  for  him  as  his  time  also 
was  limited  ;  it  was  only  as  a  personal  favor  to 
me  that  he  came  at  all  from  his  other  work  — 
everybody  was  nice  and  helping  to  me.  The 
foundation  had  been  made  ready,  and  willing 
hands  aided  him  so  the  chimney  rose  steadily 
from  the  moment  of  his  coming.  He  would 
not  come  down  even  to  eat,  but  a  hod  lined  by 
a  napkin  carried  up  all  he  would  take,  and  when 
a  light  rain  fell  a  big  umbrella  was  held  over 


92  THE    HOUSE    THAT    JACK    BUILT. 

him  to  protect,  not  the  bricklayer  —  he  would 
have  scorned  that  notion  —  but  the  cement. 
The  whole  new  house  was  cemented  by  good- 
will and  the  desire  to  give  me  pleasure. 

"  No  money  would  ever  get  such  work  out  of 
these  men,"  the  book-keeper  told  me. 

There  was  no  plastering;  the  climate  did  not 
require  it ;  and  canvas  well-stretched  took  paper- 
ing well ;  so  ceilings  were  made  of  it  and  the 
wood  walls  covered  by  it.  A  young  man  who 
had  been  scene-painter  at  the  St.  Charles  theater 
in  New  Orleans  had  skill  and  great  taste  and 
made  clever  effects  with  the  really  fine  wall- 
papers I  had  found  ;  cream  white  and  gold  with 
deep  borders  of  dull-reds  and  gold  for  the  large 
parlor  which  was  to  be  also  dining-room  for  the 
winter  as  it  had  a  fire  ;  pale  blue  with  white 
roses  for  my  own  room,  and  charming  cretonne 
papers  for  the  others.  I  had  found  cretonnes 
and  silk  and  woollen  curtain  stuffs  beautifully 
matching  all  these  wall-papers. 

We  made  an  imposing,  irregular,  invaluable 


THE    HOUSE    THAT    JACK    BUILT.  93 

dining-room  in  walnut  and  oak  papers  and  there 
we  set  up  the  Tree.  First  covering  the  new 
crimson  carpet — the  same  all  over  our  bun- 
galow—  with  green  baize.  "  Never  mind  if  the 
dark  carpets  will  show  dust,"  said  my  cheerful 
handmaiden  Rose  ;  *'  it  looks  so  warm  and  fine 
to  have  them  all  alike,  and  I'll  take  care  of  them." 
My  inexperience  had  not  thought  of  the  dust  and 
foot-mark  question,  only  of  the  good  unity  of 
effect  in  our  irregular  rooms  thus  harmonized. 
But  the  best  was  made  of  everything  by  all. 

The  Tree  was  the  bushy  top  of  a  fine  long- 
coned  pine.  It  was  another  rare  joy  for  the 
small  boy  to  help  choose  this  and  see  it  cut  — 
see  it  carefully  loaded  on  to  a  wood  sled  and 
brought  into  the  dining-room  to  be  decorated  — 
to  help  brush  over  the  long  cones  with  mucilage 
on  which  we  pressed  thin  gilt  paper,  making  a 
cluster  of  glittering  golden  cones  to  each  bough. 
Then  it  was  lifted  into  place  and  made  firm  and 
secure  —  a  beautiful  fragrant  glittering  tree  with 
the  gold  star  crowning  its  rich  dark  green. 


94  THE    HOUSE    THAT    JACK.    BUILT. 

There  were  so  many  and  such  varied  things 
to  do  and  see  to  that  it  was  a  pleasant  con- 
fusion and  reminded  me  of  an  old  fairy  tale 
where  the  Princess  has  to  marry  a  little  deformed 
Dwarf  —  who  is  however  an  Enchanter  —  and  is 
really  a  beautiful  young  Prince  and  is  just  trying 
her  by  his  disguise.  She  walks,  crying,  in  the 
garden  of  his  palace  and  suddenly  hears  sounds 
from  underground  —  the  hurry  of  preparation 
for  a  great  wedding  feast.  What  she  hears 
dries  her  tears,  for  she  finds  he  is  beloved  by 
the  fairies  who  are  all  helping  and  praising  him, 
so  she  is  no  longer  afraid.  "  Where  is  the 
largest  cake  pan  ?"  she  hears  ;  "and  the  largest 
egg  pan,  the  one  that  holds  a  hundred  eggs 
beaten  to  a  froth  ?  for  he  shall  have  the  largest 
cake  and  the  most  beautiful  ever  made." 

We  had  the  most  beautiful  cakes  that  could 
be  made  —  though  none  had  a  hundred  eggs  in 
it.  In  our  village  was  a  thoroughly  first-class 
Vienna  baker;  the  Colonel  would  not  employ 
men  who  drank  but,   knowing  good   food  was 


THE    HOUSE    THAT   JACK    BUILT.  95 

necessary  to  keep  the  stomach  in  order,  had 
brought  up  this  man  from  San  Francisco  and 
given  him  the  custom  of  the  works,  as  well  as 
our  own.  This  baker  entered  into  the  Christmas 
idea  with  true  South  German  enthusiasm.  It 
would  take  a  paper  to  itself  to  describe  the 
beautiful  things  he  made  in  cakes  and  in  sugar 
for  the  Tree.  Never  had  I  seen  such.  They 
were  the  best  Vienna  ideas  "  regardless  of  cost  " 
—  which  Germans  never  are.  The  candles  sent 
up  were  a  failure.  They  had  come  through  the 
tropics  as  all  freights  did  then,  and  were  chippy 
and  flaked  ofif.  Nor  were  they  large  enough 
for  our  beautiful  Tree.  The  baker  rose  to  the 
emergency.  He  made  handsome  tapers  of  bees- 
wax and  decorated  them  artistically  with  colors 
and  gold  leaf,  like  the  decorated  blessed  wax- 
lights  one  buys  at  cathedral  doors  abroad.  Our 
Tree  was  now  quite  beautiful. 

Its  fruitage  was  all  ready  in  the  big  out-door 
store-room  ;  cases  of  candied  fruits,  boxes  of 
toys   and   games   and   picture-books,   boxes  of 


96  THE    HOUSE    THAT   JACK    BUILT. 

colored  beads  in  bunches  of  strings  for  our 
neighbors  of  the  Indian  village,  pretty  brooches 
and  gowns  and  things  for  our  women  who  hac^ 
"  come  from  the  States "  with  us,  and  gifts  for 
our  good  Isaac  and  the  few  home-people  who 
made  our  constant  life.  It  was  to  be  a  true 
home-Christmas,  not  "  a  party." 

While  all  else  was  going  on  the  piano  had  to 
be  tuned.  With  the  family  was  to  come  up  a 
very  dear  friend  of  mine  from  New  York  who 
was  making  a  short  visit  to  her  brother  in  San 
Francisco.  Her  happy  temper,  her  lovely  gift 
of  song  and  sw'eet  ways,  made  her  coming  a 
great  Christmas-gift  to  me.  Music  was  with 
her  a  natural  expression,  but  the  piano  was 
long  unused  and  wildly  out  of  tune,  and  the 
nearest  tuner  was  in  Stockton,  eighty  miles 
away.  Sidney  Smith  thought  he  had  touched 
bottom  when  he  was  twelve  miles  away  from  a 
lemon — eighty  miles  divided  us  from  the  lemon 
and  many  other  fruits  of  civilization. 

But  we  found  some  new  strinecs  and  the  big 


THE    HOUSE    THAT    JACK    BUILT.  97 

blacksmith  of  the  mills  fastened  them  on,  winding 
them  with  a  winch — very  cautiously  —  until  I 
said  "stop;"  I  tapping  along  until  the  sound 
came  right.  Manuel,  a  black  man  from  Vir- 
ginia, was  delighted  with  this  odd  exercise  of 
his  strength.  He  also  made  for  me  a  fine  fender 
of  the  sieve-iron  used  to  "  screen  "  gold  wash- 
ings, and  some  stately  mediaeval-looking  fire- 
dogs  of  hammered  iron. 

The  tenth  day  all  was  entirely  complete  and 
in  working  order.  Fire  was  lit  on  the  new 
hearth  and  no  smoking  followed ;  the  bricklayer 
said  "it  was  a  good  job  if  it  was  so  hurried." 

The  walls  and  ceilings  had  a  look  of  solid 
elegance  and  the  unity  of  effect  made  by  the 
same  red  Brussels  carpeting  everywhere  aided 
the  appearance  of  a  large  and  quiet  house.  A 
fresh  outer  layer  of  overlapping  narrow  planks 
had  put  a  uniform  appearance  over  all  the  out- 
side of  the  house  and  the  painters  followed  up 
closely  the  men  nailing  up  the  boards.  It  was 
"a  quick  job  "  all  round. 


98  THE    HOUSE    THAT   JACK    BUILT. 

But  my  chief  pride  was  in  the  windows.  Only 
the  common  small-paned  sashes  were  to  be  had 
ready  made.  I  bethought  myself  of  old  English 
engravings,  and  by  putting  these  small  windows 
side  by  side,  as  many  as  a  wall  would  take,  we 
rose  from  mean  commonplace  windows  to  the 
quaint  Queen-Anne  effect,  and  secured  a  wide 
look-out  to  glorious  views.  Full  straight  cur- 
tains with  a  deep  frill  at  top  framed  these 
by  day,  and  when  drawn  close  at  night  with 
woodfire  and  waxlights,  piano  and  books,  there 
was  rest  and  comfort  for  a  tired  wet  horseman 
to  find  at  close  of  day. 

Everything  was  now  in  readiness.  All  traces 
of  work  had  been  carried  off,  and  smooth  order 
and  quiet  replaced  the  busy  little  crowd  of  the 
past  ten  days.  There  was  a  smell  of  paint, 
and  to  say  the  least  an  odor  of  much  freshness  ; 
but  good  fires  counteracted  this,  and  we  kept 
fragrant  cedar  pastils  burning  in  each  one  of  the 
rooms.  Everywhere  were  wreaths  of  ground-pine, 
with  wild-rose-haws  on  duty  for  holly  berries, 


THE    HOUSE    THAT   JACK    BUILT.  99 

and  on  our  windows  was  the  Christmas  Cross. 
The  pretty  supper  was  on  the  table  ;  its  ultra- 
civilized  appointments  and  the  sparkling  spun- 
sugar  pyramids  and  frosted-sugar  things  and 
bright  jellies  were  concentrated  into  a  picture 
by  the  light  from  a  hanging  lamp  with  its  fringed 
crimson  silk  shade.  All  our  "helping-hands" 
had  exchanged  congratulations  and  good  wishes 
and  good-by,  over  Christmas  cake  and  tea,  and 
now  in  the  quiet  of  the  beautified  home  the 
book-keeper  showed  me  its  crowning  beauty; 
that  everything  —  and  I  had  gone  ahead  without 
counting  —  had,  as  we  intended,  not  cost  one 
fifth  of  the  allotted  sum.  As  Secretary  of  our 
Treasury  this  good  showing  of  much  profit  from 
small  outlay  made  him  serenely  content. 

It  was  the  triumph  of  "making  the  best  of 
things  "  we  had,  and  using  good  taste  in  place 
of  mere  spending.  And  it  broadened  the  circle 
of  local  good  feeling  to  have  our  own  neighbor- 
hood furnish  all  supplies ;  so  we  were  pleased 
with  our  work  and  ourselves.    And  now  impatient 


lOO  THE    HOUSE    THAT   JACK    BUILT. 

to  see  "  the  Colonel's  "  pleasure  and  his  aston- 
ishment, for 

"  In  such  place,  'twas  strange  to  see," 

a  home  that  was  full  of  comfort  and 

.     .     .     "beautiful  exceedingly." 

The  Christmas-eve  closed  in  dark  and  misty 
before  our  travelers  at  last  arrived.  They  had 
been  delayed  on  the  mountains  by  a  thick  falling 
mist  which  obliged  them  to  great  caution,  for 
shelving  rocks  and  deep  gorges  bordered  the 
winding  road.  Mounted  men  with  torches,  and 
giving  cheery  hails,  had  gone  far  to  meet  them, 
and  once  down  into  our  valley  the  blaze  of  lights 
from  our  broad  Queen  Anne  windows  made  a 
welcoming  beacon. 

It  was  a  home-coming  of  delighted  surprises 
—  what  a  happy  clamor  it  was !  And  my  "  sur- 
prise "  was  approved  and  praised  to  my  heart's 
content. 

My  New  York  friend  had  no  words  to  express 


THE   HOUSE   THAT   JACK    BUILT.  lOI 

her  astonishment  and  delight — the  open  piano 
caught  her  eye  and  straightway  her  splendid 
voice  filled  my  hungry  ears  with  triumphant 
song.  But  hungry  people  claimed  her  for  sup- 
per :  "Bouillon,  mayonnaise  !  game  pate!  jellies, 
wedding-cakes,  and  all  Delmonico's  !  " 

The  two  days  travel  across  solitary  plains 
with  frontier  stopping-places  closing  with  the 
risky  mountain  crossing  in  the  dark  made  it,  as 
she  said,  "  a  transformation-scene  "  to  come  out 
of  the  night  and  the  mist  into  this  vision  of 
a  New  York  home  —  enriched  by  a  frontier 
welcome. 

There  was  but  one  family  of  children  within 
miles  of  us.  They  were  few  even  in  the  town 
and  large  mining  settlements  near  us ;  in  the 
village  close  by  I  knew  of  none,  but  between 
us  and  the  village  was  a  log-cabin  overflowing 
with  them.  It  stood  on  a  little  mound  where 
the  waste  water  from  the  mill  flowed  by  and 
might  have  been  made  a  pretty  place. 

But  no  ideas  of  beauty  belonged  among  its 


I02  THE    HOUSE    THAT   JACK    BUILT. 

inmates.  The  Calhouns  were  of  a  kind  happily 
becoming  extinct  —  the  "poor  whites"  of  the 
South.  For  several  years  they  had  lived  here 
and  the  only  growth  about  them  was  this  swarm 
of  sallow  tow-headed  children. 

They  were  entirely  useless  but  equally  harm- 
less people,  neither  bad  nor  good,  nor  anything. 
Quite  contented  in  their  own  way,  undisturbed 
by  knowledge  of  any  kind  and  satisfied  with  their 
idle  life  where  a  little  gold-digging  and  hunting 
provided  for  all  they  knew  of  as  comforts. 

If  anything  more  was  wanted  they  asked  for 
it  from  those  able  to  give.  Her  baby  was  ill  and 
she  sent  a  big  boy  running  for  me.  "  Mam  wants 
you  to  come  right  away  —  the  baby's  in  a  fit," 

Luckily  a  hot  bath  put  it  right.  She  was  quite 
silent  and  impassive  as  I  bathed  and  rubbed 
the  struggling  little  thing  and  only  spoke  after 
nausea  had  relieved  it  of  a  long  slip  of  salt 
pork,  and  left  it  again  comfortable  :  "Well,  you 
air  smart.  Your  boys  look  so  hearty  I  thought 
you'd  know  all  about  fits." 


THE    HOUSE   THAT   JACK.    BUILT.  1 03 

She  laughed  to  scorn  my  saying  a  baby  not  a  year 
old  could  not  manage  solid  food,  and  pointed  to 
her  little  crowd  —  huddled  around  us,  watching: 
"  They  always  eat  everything  I  did,  coffee  and 
pork  and  everything,  and  I  never  buried  one!" 

What  can  one  do  with  such  chaos  ? 

These  were  the  only  children  within  reach. 
Christmas  and  its  meaning  was  unknown  to 
them,  but  I  went  to  the  cabin  and  told  the 
mother  I  wanted  them  to  see  the  Tree  lighted 
and  get  from  it  some  presents  they  would  find 
upon  it.  She  had  a  dim  memory  that  it  was  a 
season  of  feasting  —  nothing  more  —  a  more 
complete  yet  contented  blank  could  hardly  be. 

Near  by  was  a  large  Indian  village,  some 
hundreds  settled  there.  The  young  women 
from  it  came  constantly  to  our  house  and  sat 
about  on  the  grass  chatting  together  of  us  and 
laughing  as  they  watched  our  doings  with  frank 
curiosity.  We  were  their  matinee.  Often  we 
stopped  at  their  village  on  our  rides  and  watched 
them  in  turn  as  we  sat  on  our  horses.     Their 


I04  THE    HOUSE    THAT   JACK    BUILT. 

ways  all  had  object  and  meaning — the  sewing 
of  squirrel  skins  together,  the  pounding  of  acorns 
into  meal  for  bread,  the  basket  weaving,  and 
they  were  faiily  clean  and  very  gay.  It  was  a 
pleasure  to  give  them  beads  and  such  things  as 
they  found  good  to  eat  or  pretty  to  wear  and 
now  we  told  them  —  with  some  Spanish  words 
they  understood,  and  much  pantomime  that  they 
must  come  to  see  the  festa  of  the  Tree  they  had 
watched  being  cut  and  carried  to  the  house ; 
that  they  must  bring  baskets  to  carry  home 
mucho  77iucho  —  spreading  our  hands,  and  filling 
an  imaginary  basket  full  of  things  to  eat,  and 
things  to  wear.  They  "  caught  on  "  and  accepted 
with  many  laughs  of  pleasure. 

When  I  put  the  Cross  in  the  window  soon  it 
drew  its  little  following  of  girls,  and  some  of 
the  gray-headed  women  ;  coniing  out  to  them 
they  pointed  to  it  with  their  long-drawn  deep 
eh-eh-eh  I  and  signed  themselves  on  forehead  and 
breast.  They  had  evidently  some  dim  traditional 
memory  from  the  old  Missions  and,  liking  and 


THE    HOUSE    THAT    JACK    BUILT.  1 05 

trusting  US  already,  we  were  accepted  by  them  as 
the  same  with  the  missionary  priests,  for  the  Cross 
was  to  them  assurance  of  protection  and  good- 
will—  not  the  usual  ill-will  of  the  whites.  Poor 
Mrs.  Calhoun  had  no  ideas  ;  forms  of  any  kind 
had  no  part  in  her  life. 

It  was  hard  to  induce  her  young  ones  to  come 
in  to  the  Tree.  Its  lights  shone  out  through  the 
broadside  of  window  and  we  saw  them  clustered 
outside,  like  lunar  moths,  their  white  heads  bob- 
bing about  as  they  ran  around  in  hushed  surprise. 
At  last  we  got  them  in,  hanging  together  like 
bees  around  the  tallest  boy,  silent,  but  open- 
mouthed  and  staring. 

All  boys  fraternize.  Mine  began  giving  to 
these  a  lot  of  Nuremberg  pine-wood  animals, 
the  first  of  such  things  ever  seen  by  them. 

"  A  hog,"  cried  out  the  big  boy  as  he  seized 
the  hyena.  His  eyes  glittered  as  he  hugged  the 
bow-backed  beast  to  his  bosom,  and  no  other  of 
the  gifts  so  roused  him. 

They  made  off  early  to  their  "  mam  "  with  a 


io6 


THE    HOUSE    THAT    JACK    BUILT. 


big  basket  full  of  toys  and  sweets,  and  with 
many  parcels  of  useful  things  for  her  and 
themselves. 

As  my  youngest  boy  was  but  three,  it  was  to 
him  also  a  first  Christmas.  He  had  heard  so 
much  of  it  that  his  naturally  investigating,  doubt- 
ing tone  of  mind  had  shaped  his  own  ideas. 
When  all  was  ready  and  the  candles  lighted  he 
was  sent  alone  into  the  large  quiet  room  where 
rose  the  strange  Tree  covered  with  gilded  cones 
and  candles  and  glittering  fruits  and  toys.  He 
was  quite  silent.  With  his  curly  head  a  little  to 
one  side  and  hands  locked  behind  his  back  he 
walked  around  the  strange  growth  ;  then  going 
to  his  special  ally  he  put  his  hand  into  his 
father's  and  said  in  his  French-English  "  A'c-i^v;? 
see.  Krersmas  hazekoom  !'"'  And  forthwith  com- 
menced a  chatter  and  thorough  investigation  as 
was  his  wont  in  their  daily  walks  together. 

Our  Christmas  opened  old  memories  near  and 
far.  Some  weeks  after  three  women  came  on 
horseback    from   a   mining    camp    deep    in    the 


THE    HOUSE    THAT   JACK    BUILT.  I07 

mountains,  a  hard  day's  ride  there  and  back. 
My  Tree  had  roused  home  feelings  in  these 
isolated  women,  and  the  one  who  could  em- 
broider had  made  me  a  collar  of  fine  needle- 
work, gratefully  received  by  me  for  the  feeling 
with  which  it  had  been  made  ;  while  they  all 
wanted  to  tell  me  how  they  felt  to  hear  of  a 
Christmas-tree  so  near ;  and  to  tell  me  what  a 
difference  I  had  made  by  staying  up  during  the 
mining  troubles  : 

"  If  you  had  gone  away  then,  the  men  would 
have  begun  fighting  and  these  hills  would  have 
run  blood.  And  now  we  sleep  safe  over  at  our 
camp  because  the  Colonel  stands  up  for  stopping 
the  jumping  of  our  mine.  And  now  you  have 
come  to  stay  he'll  see  us  safe  through." 

They  could  stay  but  a  few  hours,  but  they  did 
enjoy  going  over  my  patch-work  house,  and 
appreciated  all  my  arrangements  and  contriv- 
ances. All  was  as  pretty  as  a  picture  — and  an 
assurance  in  widening  circles  of  gentle  influences 
for  peace  and  good-will. 


VI. 


SIERRA    NEIGHBORS. 


WE  had  not  easily  reached  this  condition 
of  orderly  comfort.  Our  earlier  house- 
keeping had  presented  difficulties  which  would 
have  dismayed  regular  forces,  but  we  were  the 
kind  of  volunteers  "  who  did  not  know  when 
they  were  beaten."  And  by  keeping  on  trying 
against  all  failures,  we  won  at  last,  and  made 
the  domestic  wheels  go  round  with  smooth 
regularity. 

Labor  was  all  concentrated  into  the  one  chan- 
nel of  mining  work,  and  so  long  as  canned  and 
salted  things,  easily  kept  and  easy  of  transpor- 
tation, suited  the  miners,  no  effort  was  made  to 
give  them  fresher  food.  Consequently  we  found 
some  unusual  conditions  for  housekeeping; 
fancy  going  about  it  with  no  milk,  no  eggs —  no 
joB 


SIERRA    NEIGHBORS.  IO9 

hens  to  lay  them  —  no  vegetables.  And  as  there 
was  no  ice,  the  only  meat,  beef,  had  to  be  killed, 
cooked  and  used  the  same  day,  during  summer 
weather.  It  was  almost  the  fable  of  King 
Midas  —  gold  everywhere,  but  nothing  but 
gold. 

Our  garden  was  run  wild  except  the  unfailing 
cabbage  patch.  That  had  been  cared  for.  My 
friend,  Miss  Seward,  has  laughed  with  me  over 
this  inevitable  around-the-world  vegetable  — 
"  we  left  it  in  fields  on  fields  in  our  own 
Mohawk  Valley,  and  saw  it  everywhere,  even  in 
the  Valley  of  Cachemire  "  ;  but 

"Thy  sweet  vale,  Cachemire," 

had  not  sweeter  roses  than  we  found  taking 
care  of  themselves  and  spreading  over  the 
noting  artichokes  which  claimed  their  birth- 
right as  thistles  to  possess  the  land. 

Even  water,  that  life-blood  of  all  growths,  was 
hard  to  get  at.  Large  clear  springs  were  many, 
welling  up  from  under  projecting  rocks,  but  it 


no  SIERRA    NEIGHBORS. 

was  a  heart-break  and  a  back-break  for  the 
women  to  dip  up  enough  of  this  for  daily  uses. 

Perhaps  the  laundry  work  was  our  most  seri- 
ous question ;  for  though  the  two  nurses  had 
taken  the  kitchen  and  laundry,  the  heat  made 
both  hard  for  them  at  best,  and  this  novel  bother 
about  water  made  it  harder. 

And  no  money  could  prevail  on  any  of  the 
very  few  women  up  there  to  work  ;  they  were 
too  much  at  ease  in  this  prospering  mining  com- 
munity to  fatigue  themselves,  which  was  good 
for  them  while  it  was  trying  for  us.  Whatever 
men  could  do  was  quickly  accomplished.  A  big 
barn  and  stable,  a  fine  hen-house,  a  duck-pond, 
made  by  leading  the  water  of  several  springs  to 
a  depression  and  there  damming  it,  quickly  gave 
proper  living  to  our  animals  and  the  load  of 
fowls  we  had  sent  up  from  Stockton.  But  the 
clothes  began  to  accumulate  into  an  alarming 
mound. 

At  last  we  got  a  laundress.  Hearing  of  our 
cartt'-b/aui/ie  offers,  there  came  a  group  of  a  man, 


SIERRA    NEIGHBORS.  Ill 

his  wife  and  baby  and  a  pack-horse  loaded  with 
their  traps.  "  He  "  would  "let  her  stay  "  until 
she  was  strong  again.  Her  baby  was  very 
young,  and  she  looked,  as  she  said  she  was, 
"most  beat  out." 

Thankfully  we  accepted  all  demands  :  a  sep- 
arate lodging,  and  their  separate  cooking  estab- 
lishment ;  provisions  for  all  the  party,  and  feed 
and  pasture  for  the  horse ;  and  a  hundred  dol- 
lars a  month  in  money.  As  an  incident,  when 
her  health,  her  housekeeping  and  her  baby  per- 
mitted, she  was  to  do  the  washing. 

I  had  difficulty  in  suppressing  my  French 
nurse,  who  was  fortunately  not  fluent  in  English 
—  "  des  voleurs  /"  was  her  comment ;  but  it  was 
Hobson's  choice. 

"  He  "  was  a  surly  creature,  holding  himself 
high  above  our  two  colored  men  because  he  was 
white  ;  but  not  above  living  off  his  wife's  work. 
She  looked  timidly  at  me  while  the  unpleasant 
young  man  dictated  his  terms.  Her  wistful 
look  and  the  thin  little  dirty  baby  made   all  of 


112  SIERRA    NEIGHBORS. 

US  women  close  round  her  in  protection,  though 
the  man  was  repelling.  With  good  rest  and 
nourishing  food,  and  kindly  cares  from  women, 
she  regained  strength  fast  and  came  so  bravely 
in  help  to  our  people  that  the  clothes-mountain 
diminished  rapidly. 

But  before  the  month  ended,  she  came  to  me, 
crying;  "  He  "  said  she  was  well  enough  to  go 
on,  that  she  could  make  money  now  by  her 
washing  while  he  worked  in  the  diggings  at 
Walker's  Creek  (the  last  new  excitement)  and 
must  come  then  —  that  day. 

We  could  not  help  her  any  further.  It  had 
been  to  her  a  paradise  of  friendly  helping,  of 
care  such  as  she  never  dreamed  of  for  her  baby 
as  well  as  for  her  own  young  ignorant  self,  and 
now  she  knew  the  difference,  while  we  hated  to 
see  her  dragged  back  into  that  fagging  tramp- 
life  ;  but  he  strode  off,  gun  on  shoulder,  leading 
the  horse,  and  she  trailed  after  him,  head  down, 
carrying  the  baby. 

After  this  I  boldly  utilized  Indian  girls  from 


SIERRA    NEIGHBORS. 


1^3 


their  village  hard  by.  We  were  warned  they 
would  carry  off  anything  they  fancied,  but  they 
never  did.  Punctuality  was  not  their  gift,  but 
good-humor  was,  and  a  genuine  girlish  pleasure 
in  praise  and  rewards.  The  silver  piece,  larger 
or  smaller,  according  to  their  merit,  which  closed 
the  day  was  a  quick  education,  and  we  had  more 
candidates  than  we  had  places  for.  A  competi- 
tive practical  testing  of  steadiness  and  capacity 
winnowed  out  an  efficient  corps  of  washerwomen 
and  "  scrub-girls." 

As  water  will  not  run  uphill,  we  built  the 
laundry  down  the  hill,  over  a  spring ;  lining 
the  spring  with  smooth  planking,  and  leading 
its  gathered  waters  by  a  trough  into  large  tubs, 
each  a  grade  below  the  other,  the  water  let  on 
by  a  plug  from  above,  and  off  by  others  in  the 
bottoms  of  the  tubs  —  the  whole  running  off 
into  a  little  ravine  to  the  happiness  of  our  ducks 
and  geese.  A  discarded  invention  for  roasting 
crushed  ore  made  a  capital  hot-water  boiler, 
with  the  advantage  of  standing  outside  under  a 


114  SIERRA    NEIGHBORS. 

spreading  oak.  The  spring  gave  its  own  fresh- 
ness to  the  large  laundry-room  where,  after  work 
had  grown  to  smooth  habit  in  her  domain,  Rose 
could  sit  in  comfort  at  the  mending,  or  reading 
her  beloved  "  David  Copperfield,"  and  govern 
her  dusky  crew  by  a  shake  of  the  head  and  an 
exhibit  of  the  smallest  coin,  or  an  encouraging 
smile  and  "  beuno  benno  "  with  a  large  coin  held  up ; 
and  a  bright  ribbon  or  a  string  of  beads  equalled 
a  gold  medal  as  reward.  Extra  rewards  were 
given  for  personal  neatness  —  some  combs  and 
brushes  and  much  soap,  with  object-lessons 
by  my  tidy  sweet-natured  Rose. 

They  looked  of  a  different  race  after  they  had 
seen  the  advantage  of  cleanliness,  and  learned 
to  plait  their  thick  hair  in  a  club.  Starch  in 
their  own  calico  skirts  was  the  crowning  touch  of 
finery.  A  clean  white  under  garment,  a  bright- 
^  colored  cotton  skirt,  with  a  large  gay  cotton 
handkerchief  pinned  across  the  shoulders,  and 
the  tidy  club  of  plaited  hair  tied  with  a  bright 
ribbon,  made  them  into  picturesque  peasants. 


SIERRA    NEIGHBORS.  II5 

I  had  grown  up  among  slaves  and  could  make 
allowance  for  untutored  people,  as  I  knew  them 
of  all  grades,  from  the  carefully  trained  and  re- 
fined house-servants  to  the  common  field-hands  ; 
and  knew  that  with  them,  as  with  us,  they  must 
have  nature's  stamp  of  intelligence  and  good- 
humor,  without  which  any  teaching  and  training 
is  not  much  use.  As  the  early  Mission  Fathers 
had  taught  weaving  and  cooking  to  the  women, 
and  simple  agriculture  and  the  care  of  flocks 
and  herds  to  the  men,  and  left  in  the  fine  mis- 
sion buildings  proof  of  their  capacity  as  work- 
men, so  I  experimented  on  these  Indian  women 
with  advantage  to  them  as  well  as  to  ourselves. 

And  later  we  had  our  reward  from  Indian 
men  also.  Often  on  our  rides,  as  I  have  said, 
we  would  stop  in  the  Indian  village  and  watch 
them  as  we  sat  on  our  horses.  The  center  of 
the  village  was  their  open-air  work  room  and 
silon,  where  they  seemed  always  cheerfully 
busy  and  useful  —  the  women,  I  mean  —  the 
men  went  too  much  to  the  whites'  village  ;    but 


Il6  SIERRA    NEIGHBORS. 

they  also  went  after  squirrels  and  birds  and 
game,  and  the  squirrel-skins  made  an  important 
feature  in  their  clothing.  They  sewed  these 
together  into  large  capes  ;  a  woman,  laughing, 
held  up  an  unfinished  garment  huddled  across 
her  breast  with  a  pretended  shiver  as  she  looked 
high  up  the  mountain,  making  us  see  they  were 
providing  against  cold  weather. 

We  noticed  one  very  old  body,  too  old  to 
pound  acorns  or  gather  sticks  —  she  looked  her- 
self like  a  fagot  of  dried  sticks  —  who  was 
always  peeling  mushrooms,  or  carefully  peeling 
the  oily  pinon-nut,  which  they  grind  and  mix 
with  acorn  flour  into  a  cake.  Her  one  only 
garment  was  a  scant  and  ragged  old  cloak  of 
squirrel  skins  that  did  not  meet  around  her. 
We  carried  her  and  made  her  put  on  a  woollen 
undershirt  and  a  warm  scarlet  balmoral  skirt, 
and  shortly  after  saw  this  striped  skirt  worn  as 
a  hussar  jacket,  jauntily,  one  bare  arm  and 
shoulder  free,  by  a  }oung  Indian  man  going 
into  our  village.     And  he  only  shook   ins  head 


SIERRA    NEIGHBORS.  II7 

and  grinned  and  kept  on  when  I  tried  to  make 
him  ashamed  of  robbing  the  old  crone.  Then 
I  tried  Prussian  war-tactics  and  made  their  whole 
village  responsible — no  more  presents  to  any 
one  unless  they  all  joined  in  keeping  for  the 
one  we  gave  to  what  was  his  or  hers.  And  it 
worked  about  as  well  as  our  elaborate  methods 
of  securing  justice.  There  is  no  protection  for 
age  and  helplessness  except  among  really  Chris- 
tian communities. 

Their  babies  had,  I  thought,  a  roughish  life. 
You  can't  fondle  a  cradle  as  well  as  a  baby,  and 
these  little  ones,  tight-swaddled  and  strapped  to 
flat  osier  cradles,  with  a  little  wicker  hood  to 
them,  were  carried  on  the  mother's  back  when 
she  went  about  the  country,  and  just  hung  up 
on  trees  when  she  was  at  home.  The  flies 
bothered  them  sadly ;  they  were  not  clean,  but 
they  were  stoically  quiet  —  no  one  ever  heard 
an  Indian  baby  cry. 

Some  of  their  baskets  they  wove  so  compactly 
that  they  were  used  to  boil  water  in  —  basket-work 


Il8  SIERRA    NEIGHBORS. 

tea-kettles  ;  others,  long  and  wide-mouthed  cones 
with  one  flat  side,  were  carried  on  the  back  by 
a  strap  around  chest  and  forehead,  and  were  of 
the  exact  shape  and  uses  of  the  hotte  of  the 
French  peasant.  Into  these  they  gathered  and 
carried  heavy  loads  of  acorns,  of  berries  and  of 
mushrooms ,  of  these  last  they  used  great  quan- 
tities, both  dried  and  fresh. 

People  who  of  their  own  accord  did  these 
things,  could  do  more  when  instructed,  encour- 
aged and  rewarded. 

The  elder  women  dearly  loved  their  pipes  and 
delighted  in  the  tobacco  we  carried  them  ,  they 
added  it  in  small  proportion  to  the  customary 
dried  leaves  and  herbs  in  regular  use.  Great 
as  was  their  interest  in  our  visits  and  though 
they  were  sure  of  beads  and  tobacco  and  other 
treasures  from  us,  yet  they  never  failed  in  gen- 
uine politeness  ;  never  crowding,  or  even  look- 
ing eager,  but  gaily  welcoming  us,  and  offering 
us  pihon-nuts  or  whatever  berries  were  in  season 
with  native  sood  manners. 


SIERRA    NEIGHBORS.  I  ig 

It  was  exactly  the  Bible  picture  of  the  "  two 
women  shall  be  grinding  corn,"  to  see  them 
pounding  acorns  into  meal  for  bread  (how  they 
did  prize  a  real  sieve),  a  flat  stone  with  a  vigor- 
ous woman  either  side  squatted  on  the  ground, 
lifting  her  pounding  stone  with  both  hands,  the 
arms  of  the  two  rising  and  falling  alternately  in 
accurate  time  and  even  stroke.  The  younger 
women  and  girls  wove  baskets,  sewed  skins  and 
calico  skirts  and  made  nets  of  twine  and  beads 
for  the  men,  as  well  as  for  their  own  manes  of 
hair  —  in  their  way  they  were  comfortable  and 
industrious  and  had  useful  purpose  and  fore- 
thought in  their  occupations. 

Our  house,  ourselves  and  our  kitchen  re- 
mained of  endless  interest  to  them.  They 
would  drop  in  a  ring  on  the  grass  near  the 
open  door  of  the  kitchen,  and  follow  all  Meme's 
doings  with  laughing  comments,  she  with  true 
French  good  humor  indulging  them  and  by 
lively  pantomime  explaining  —  often  following 
up  by  a  portion  for  them  to  taste. 


120  SIERRA    NEIGHBORS. 

Their  soft  voices  would  chorus  out  the  "  eh- 
eh-eh!''''  which  expressed  by  its  intonation  won- 
der, sorrow  or  pleasure.  Beef-suet  was  to 
them  what  chocolate  bonbons  are  to  our  girls  — 
they  shredded  it  daintily,  laughing  with  each 
mouthful.  The  cook  kept  it  all  for  them,  melted 
into  cakes,  and  to  combine  enjoyments  they 
would  flock  over  to  the  tree  under  which  lessons 
generally  went  on,  pleased  and  quiet  unless 
Douglass  in  a  boyish  fit  of  fun  recited  poetry 
with  gestures,  when  the  '■'■  eh-eh-eh  T''  became  a 
chorus  of  praise  —  it  was  a  picture,  the  fair- 
haired  very  white  English  lad  reciting  the  Morte 
d'Arthur  with  Indians  and  mountains  for  audi- 
ence and  theater. 

They  quickly  saw  our  love  of  wild  flowers 
and  brought  the  first  of  each  —  even  some  of 
their  young  men  brought  flowers  that  grew  in 
difficult  places,  to  the  amazement  of  the  white 
people  who  met  them  carrying  wild  jasmine 
and  larkspur  and  the  tulip-like  mariposas-flower 
to    "  Fle'mon  "    as    they    named    us    all.     "  I'd 


SIERRA    NEIGHBORS.  121 

never  have  believed  it  of  an  Injun,"  said  one 
man  to  me. 

Quite  our  nearest  white  neighbors,  occupying 
each  a  small  "  rise  "  by  which  flowed  the  waste- 
water of  the  mill,  were  on  one  an  Italian  with 
his  wife  and  baby,  and  on  the  other  the 
family  I  have  spoken  of  —  a  typical  family  of  a 
kind  now  impossible,  "  the  poor  whites  of  the 
South."  Deprived  there  by  surrounding  influ- 
ences of  all  advantages,  of  all  chances,  their 
whole  pride  concentrated  in  the  fact  that  they 
were  white  ;  this,  by  the  curious  alchemy  of 
ignorance  and  self-conceit,  endowed  them  with 
complacent  superiority.  The  swarthy,  black- 
eyed,  black-haired  Italians  they  looked  down 
upon  with  contempt  because  they  were  so  dark, 
and  because  "  that  Eye-talian  worked  like  a  nig- 
gar."  He  worked  a  great  deal  harder.  He  had 
put  a  fence  around  his  few  acres,  saved  some  of 
the  fine  trees,  and  was  already  raising  cabbages 
and  beans  when  I  first  went  up  to  the  place. 


122  SIERRA    NEIGHBORS. 

His  small  cabin  solidly  plastered  and  v.'hlte- 
washed  outside  and  in,  with  its  door,  and  a 
glass  window  with  a  white  curtain,  showed  their 
industry  and  neatness  in  contrast  with  the  dingy 
log-cabin  and  hard  bare  ground  of  the  next 
knoll. 

The  "Eye-talian  "  had  behaved  well  during  the 
mining  trouble;  he  produced  a  long  gun  shaped 
like  a  wide-moutlied  trumpet  and  reported  for 
defensive  duty  at  our  house  or  the  mill ;  further 
he  would  not  go  from  his  wife.  Not  only  for 
prudent  care  of  her  but,  he  was  known  to  be 
wildly  jealous.  She  was  many  years  younger 
than  himself,  and  really  beautiful.  When  I 
first  saw  her  in  her  picturesque  peasant  dress, 
her  own  young  beauty  and  the  noble  baby  in 
her  arms  made  a  vision  of  artistic  beauty,  and 
Old  World  art-associations  —  a  true  peasant 
Madonna  and  Child.  She  was  never  let  to 
leave  their  little  inclosure,  but  her  picture-like 
beauty  attracted  me  often,  and  the  baby  was  a 
little  Muiillo.     Seeing:  the  man  so  industrious 


SIERRA    NEIGHBORS.  I23 

and  capable,  I  got  for  him  from  San  Francisco 
proper  implements  and  seeds  of  herbs  and 
vegetables  and  some  flowers,  and  soon  he  had  a 
market  garden  that  paid  him  well,  and  was  a 
great  luxury  to  us. 

As  for  their  scornful  neighbors,  the  Cal- 
hoons,"  my  one  look  in  upon  them  when  they 
called  me  in  to  help  the  baby  through  "  a  fit  " 
was  enough.  Theirs  was  a  hopeless  case  of 
contented  ignorance  of  better  things.  There, 
where  every  one  was  getting  rich  simply  by 
easy  work,  they  lived  for  mere  existence.  Deer 
and  hares  and  birds  they  could  have  in  quantity, 
for  hunting  was  not  "  work."  The  father  prided 
himself  on  not  working  unless  when  he  wanted 
a  little  more  money  than  his  fitful  gold-digging 
gave  him.  He  had  made  a  short  dam  and  col- 
lected the  water  running  by  his  door,  and  by  its 
aid  could  always  wash  out  enough  "  pay-dirt  "  for 
their  pork  and  coffee  and  tobacco  ;  if  he  needed 
more  he  came  to  the  mill  and  asked  a  job  of 
wood-cutting,  and  always  got  it;    the  Colonel 


124  SIERRA    NEIGHBORS. 

had  so  ordered  for,  he  said,  he  "  liked  a  man  to 
be  thorough,  and  Calhoun  was  the  most  thor- 
oughly idle  man  he  ever  knew." 

The  climate  was  easy,  and  there  was  no  end 
to  the  fine  fuel  to  be  had  for  the  gathering,  and 
with  a  little  industry  he  and  his  boys  could  have 
gathered  gold  as  easily  ;  but  they  toiled  not,  nor 
did  they  care  to  adorn  themselves  even  with 
cleanliness,  though  nature  had  fairly  endowed 
both  man  and  woman  ;  both  were  tall,  erect,  and 
easy  in  motion,  with  good  straight  features,  and 
large,  clear  eyes.  Yet  their  small  log-cabin  had 
an  earth  floor ;  the  windows  mere  gaps  left  be- 
tween the  mud-chinked  walls  ;  the  bedstead  low 
stakes  with  a  hide  stretched  across,  and  a  dread- 
ful-looking feather  bed  and  old  quills  made  the 
bed.  A  wide,  yawning  rough  chimney  of  stones 
made  a  fine  fireplace,  but  furniture  there  was 
none  beyond  some  blocks  of  wood  for  seats. 
0}i  mangeait  sur  la  pouce  evidently,  and  the 
"  thumb  "  was  not  tidied  up  after  meals. 

They  were  utterly  without   the  most  simple 


SIERRA    NEIGHBORS.  I25 

instruction,  and  still  this  woman  had  some  of 
the  instincts  and  feminine  little  arts  belongins: 
to  high  training.  Once  C^zZ-hoon  cut  down  a 
large  group  of  fine  oaks  the  Colonel  specially 
protected  for  their  beauty  and  their  position  near 
our  village.  Returning  from  San  Francisco  he 
found  this  harm  done,  and  for  once  was  angry ; 
sending  for  the  evil-doer  to  come  to  him  at  the 
house. 

In  his  place  came  Mrs.  Ca/-hoor\  with  her 
following  of  children.  Easy,  unconcerned,  with 
quite  the  manner  of  any  morning  visitor  of  so- 
ciety, she  walked  in  upon  me  and  installed  her- 
self in  an  arm-chair :  the  Colonel  being  out  she 
told  me  I  might  just  go  on  teaching  my  little 
girl  —  "she  liked  to  hear  me";  then  tilting 
back  her  sunbonnet  proceeded  to  nourish  the 
baby  and  issue  orders  to  the  children  who  stuck 
to  her  :  "  You  jest  set  down  there,  and  don't 
scrape  your  feet  ag'in  the  carpet  "  (down  settled 
many  little  boys  in  high-necked  tow  trousers, 
only  these  and  nothing  more).     "  You,"  to  the 


126  SIERRA    NEIGHBORS. 

bigger  boys,  "  you  just  go  to  Uncle  Ike  "  (our 
Isaac)  "  and  tell  him  I'll  take  a  settin'  o'  the 
white  turkey's  eggs  ;  he  kin  put  'em  in  a  basket." 

All  obeyed  her.  I  went  on  with  the  French 
reading  while  the  cake  I  had  sent  for  was  being 
quietly  eaten  by  the  little  ones  and  the  mother, 
who  in  one  lank  garment  of  calico  lay  back  in 
the  chair  and  stretched  her  long  limbs,  showing 
brogans  without  stockings,  but  as  simply  con 
tent  listening  to  our  reading  as  any  lady  might 
listen  at  a  concert. 

She  did  not  rise  when  the  Colonel  came,  for 
the  baby  was  asleep,  but  she  was  so  natural  and 
direct,  so  instinctively  sure  of  disarming  dis- 
pleasure, that  she  carried  the  day  and  left  us 
amused  and  pleased  by  her  native  tact  • 

"  Kurnel,  I  hearn  you  was  mad  at  Cr/Z-hoon 
for  cuttin'  them  oaks,  and  I  come  over  to  tell 
you  'twa'n't  him,  'twas  inc  did  it.  You  see  he'd 
got  a  big  job  o'  cuttin'  while  you  was  down  to 
'P'risco  ef  he  could  git  it  done  up  right  away, 
and  /"  (with  a  little  feminine  toss  of  the  head) 


SIERRA    NEIGHBORS.  I27 

"  tole  him,  jest  take  the  little  grove  on  the  stage 
road  and  you'll  haul  it  in  quick  —  an'  he  done 
it  because  /tole  him.  So  it's  me,  Kurnel,  you've 
got  to  be  mad  at." 

The  absurd  contradiction  between  her  looks 
and  her  falling  back  on  the  privileges  of  an 
irresponsible  fine  lady  who  feels  no  barrier  to 
her  caprices,  fetched  us  ;  and  she  went  off  satis- 
fied with  herself,  though  promising  for  the 
future  to  keep  her  husband  to  the  trees  marked 
out  for  cutting. 

These  were  our  immediate  neighbors.  In 
the  large  town  twelve  miles  away  were,  as  one 
is  sure  to  find  in  our  frontier  towns,  an  advance- 
guard  of  exceptional  men  strong  in  heart  and 
purpose,  and  some  fine,  patient,  hoping  women 
who  tell  well  in  forming  the  community. 

Among  these  connected  with  our  own  works 
were  men  of  education  and  travel,  and  already 
travelers  came  up  with  letters  of  introduction 
to  visit  the  mines  and  works,  and  from  us  go  on 
to  the  Yosemite  region  near  by.     In  this  way 


128  SIERRA    NEIGHBORS. 

we  had  a  charming  visit  from  Richard  Dana  — 
"  Two  Years  Before  the  Mast  "  Dana.  He  and 
the  Colonel  met  as  two  Selkirks  might,  revisit- 
ing their  once  desert  island  and  finding  it  a 
busy  seaport.  And  a  visit  from  Horace  Greeley 
who  could  not  sufficiently  praise  my  "  executive 
ability"  as  he  called  it  —  for  to  him  any  well 
ordered  household  was  the  acme  of  woman's 
genius,  and  now  after  his  overland-stage  experi 
ence  he  was  surprised  by  this  evolution  of  ele- 
gance and  comfort  in  such  remote  surroundings. 
But  months  of  isolation  from  such  women  as 
one  needs  for  human  nature's  daily  food,  made 
the  long  visit  of  our  friend  Hannah  beyond  tell- 
ing precious.  With  her  Quaker  name  and  com- 
plexion she  had  their  sweet  even  domestic 
nature,  and  a  happy  overflowing  wit  and  gayety 
of  heart  all  her  own.  Like  Charles  Lamb's 
Hester, 

"  Her  parents  held  the  Quaker  rule 
Which  doth  the  passions  train  and  cool; 
It  could  not  Hester, 


SIERRA    NEKJHRORS.  129 

For  she  was  trained  in  Nature's  school 
And  Nature  blest  her." 

With  all,  she  had  the  gift  of  song  and  a  musi- 
cal organization,  which  with  high  training  and  the 
best  associations  in  music  made  of  her  the  most 
complete,  the  most  enjoyable  musical  person  I 
have  ever  known.  We  had  met  often  in  the  usual 
society  ways  in  New  York  and  our  mutual  love 
of  music  brought  us  together  at  many  intimate 
musicales,  but  now  in  this  odd  framing  her  talent 
came  out  resplendent.  And  in  all  ways  it  be- 
came a  friendship  for  life.  The  delightful  long 
days  in  the  open  air,  the  charming  evenings  of 
music,  the  appreciative  zest  with  which  she 
entered  into  the  novel  interests  of  the  work  on 
the  place,  were  helping  and  refreshing  to  the 
Colonel,  while  I  was  in  a  long  good  dream  of 
content. 

We  would  make  an  early  start,  Hannah  driv- 
ing the  light  strong  mountain-wagon,  a  man  fol- 
lowing on  horseback  in  case  of  need,  and  go 
wherever  wheels  could  carry  us  ;  making  unex- 


130  SIERRA    NEIGHBORS. 

pected  finds  of  isolated  houses  or  little  settle- 
ments where  we  gave  a  bit  of  pleasure  to  some 
lonely  woman  and  always  met  the  most  cordial, 
real  hospitality  and  welcome.  At  some  places 
where  I  saw  it  would  be  a  joy,  I  asked  Hannah 
to  sing,  and  never  did  a  glorious  gift  do  more 
gracious  and  lovely  duty  than  when  she  sang  to 
them  the  songs  they  knew  of,  and  other  music 
which  was  a  revelation. 

We  came  once  on  a  place  that  looked  as 
though  a  woman's  care  had  shaped  things ;  the 
grass  was  cut  short,  and  a  clean  path  led  up  to 
a  wide  porch  with  seats  and  a  table,  and  the 
great  oaks  all  around  and  overhanging  the  house 
and  corral  were  very  different  from  the  usual 
stumps  which  make  our  national  frontier  deco- 
ration —  and  behold  !  there  was  not  a  woman 
around  there.  Only  men  —  but  Frenchmen. 
And  a  "  hard  lot  "  as  we  learned  afterwards. 
Isaac,  who  knew  every  one,  was  not  with  us  that 
day,  only  a  man  we  had  brought  up  from  San 
Francisco.     But  the  "  hard  lot  "  came  forward 


SIERRA   NEIGHBORS.  131 

and  offered  milk  and  spring  water,  or  if  we 
would  do  them  the  honor  to  descend  they  asked 
to  offer  us  an  omelet  and  some  claret  —  which 
we  had  to  decline,  as  it  was  late  and  we  were 
nearly  fourteen  miles  from  home. 

As  soon  as  the  snows  were  enough  off  we 
were  to  go  to  the  Yosemite,  only  thirty  miles 
away  in  an  air  line,  but  about  seventy  by  the 
best  trail  then  open.  It  was  to  be  a  horseback 
camping-out  excursion,  and  very  careful  and 
experienced  men  were  selected  to  go  with  us 
and  make  all  safe  and  comfortable,  A  pack- 
mule  carried  some  light  baggage,  as  we  were  to 
be  away  a  week. 

But  when  the  morning  came  for  the  start  with 
it  arrived  three  lawyers  to  stay  a  few  days  on 
business.  This  ended  my  going.  It  was  very 
hard  to  lose  this  delightful  bit  of  travel  in  such 
companionship,  and  not  to  see  the  new  wonder- 
land together.  But  I  was  needed  at  home  for 
manners,  as  well  as  for  housekeeping,  good  as 
my  women  were. 


132  SIERRA    NEIGHBORS. 

They  started  without  me,  all,  even  my  acci- 
dent-boy, and  then  later  in  the  day,  but  quite 
too  late  to  overtake  them,  we  found  I  might 
have  gone,  after  all.  For  some  requirement 
obliged  the  case  to  come  up  in  the  San  Francisco 
courts,  not,  as  they  expected,  in  our  own  county 
court. 

This  was  a  double  disappointment,  but  I  had 
to  put  myself  down  and  be  hospitable  and  as 
agreeable  as  possible ;  for  the  lawyers  were 
really  sorry  about  my  lost  pleasant  outing. 

They  were  taking  leave  to  join  the  stage 
which  passed  through  our  village  about  sunset, 
when  I  felt  something  was  wrong — there  were 
looks  of  alarm,  more  people  than  usual  were 
coming  and  going —  rapidly.  Though  they  tried 
to  engage  my  attention,  I  quickly  found  my 
youngest  boy  was  missing  and  no  one  could 
find  him.  The  mill,  even  the  village  was  roused 
by  the  alarm,  and  men  on  foot  and  on  horse- 
back were  searching,  but  could  find  no  trace. 
"  Lost  child  "  is  a  note  of  woe  anywhere,  but 


SIERRA    NEIGHBORS.  I33 

here  in  a  wild,  wild  mountain  country  with 
brooks  and  mill-dams  and  deep  mining-holes, 
so  many  pit- falls  for  the  baby  feet  —  he  was 
only  three  years  old  —  and  with  rattle-snakes 
in  number,  the  sun  sinking  and  darkness  coming 
fast  on  the  narrow  valley  —  horror  seized  me. 

Singly,  then  all  together,  many  strong  voices 
called  the  dear  name.  Horsemen  zigzagged 
around  shouting  it  —  myself,  holding  on  to  his 
father,  running  to  Calhoun's  little  dam  where  men 
tore  it  down  and  let  out  the  water.  Then  we 
ran  away  from  that  terror,  again  to  the  mill-road 
where  sometimes  he  was  let  to  go  to  meet  his 
father,  though  never  alone — he  was  so  young. 

Drowned  !  —  Stolen  !  —  Rushing  crowds  of 
terrors  pictured  themselves  to  me  as  I  ran  over 
rocks  and  tree  roots,  frantic,  but  dumb.  "  For 
Heaven's  sake  scream  or  cry  or  call  the  boy  ! " 
one  of  the  lawyers  said  to  me,  seeing  I  could 
not  speak ,  in  rough  kindness  he  grasped  my 
hands  trying  to  break  the  silent  horror  that  he 
saw  had  mastered  me.     I  saw  it  growing  darker. 


134  SIERRA    NEIGHBORS. 

There  was  only  left  a  broad  red  band  of  sunset 
at  the  far  end  of  the  valley. 

Then  a  cry,  "  Look  up  !  "  and  with  a  mighty 
shout  all  cried,  "  There  he  is  !  "  and  against  the 
red  bar  was  outlined  a  horse  with  its  harness 
knotted  up  about  it,  the  teamster  holding  high 
in  his  arms  my  baby. 

For  the  first  and  only  time  in  my  life  I  felt 
that  cruel  force,  that  cyclone  of  the  true  hysteric 
passion.  For  days  after  my  throat  and  chest 
remained  weak  and  bruised  by  the  prolonged, 
repeated  wild  screams  that  no  reasoning  or 
comforting  —  not  even  the  little  tender  arms 
around  me  could  stop.  Then  the  rough  lawyer 
wet  my  face  and  head  and  tried  to  make  me 
swallow  water  —  I  saw  his  face  and  that  his 
eyes  were  filled  with  tears.  "  Let  her  scream  — 
let  her  cry — don't  you  see  she  was  going  mad 
in  that  silence  ?  " 

And  then  the  ram  of  saving  tears  came  to 
me.  How  good  the  men  all  were  ;  the  kindest 
gentle  words.     They  carried  me  to  the  house, 


SIERRA  NEIGHBORS.  I35 

the  baby  held  fast  by  me  —  I  was  too  limp  and 
broke  n-up  to  move. 

And  after  all  it  was  the  mistaken  kindness  of 
a  passing  teamster  who  seeing  the  child  perched 
on  a  gate-post,  offered  him  a  ride,  keeping  the 
little  fellow  after  it,  while  unharnessing  his 
team,  and  not  conscious  of  anything  unusual 
until  the  calls  of  the  mounted  men  reached  him, 
when  he  jumped  on  one  of  the  horses  and  came 
fast,  holding  the  boy  aloft. 

This  incident  and  the  good  personal  feeling 
it  drew  out  bound  us  all  together  in  a  way 
nothing  else  could.  The  protecting  instinct  is 
wonderfully  strong  in  American  men  toward 
women,  children,  and  those  struck  by  calamity. 
Now  any  leaven  of  hard  feelings  as  to  much 
land  to  some  and  little  to  others  was  wiped  out 
by  the  touch  of  nature  which  made  us  all  one 
that  brief,  but  horribly  long,  time  of  fear  for 
the  lost  child.  And  after  that  I  felt  encom- 
passed by  the  delightful  atmosphere  of  kindly 
good-will. 


VII. 

CAMPING    NEAR    THE   GIANT   TREES. 

BY  way  of  making  up  to  me  for  the  disap)- 
pointment  of  not  going  to  the  Yosemite 
Falls  we  went  to  the  Great  Trees  near  there,  a 
place  so  beautiful,  so  unique,  that  it  has  now 
been  made  a  National  Reservation.  Then  it 
was  a  far  solitude. 

Driving  over  to  the  town  of  Mariposas  we  left 
there  the  carriage  and  next  morning  made  a 
sunrise  start  on  horseback  with  some  experi- 
enced men  to  look  out  for  us,  and  enough  pack- 
mules  to  carry  camp-equipage,  blankets,  and 
light  supplies  for  the  week's  outing. 

We  were    a   very   light-hearted    party.     The 

Colonel  had  to  stay  at  home,  and  made  himself 

responsible  for  no   adventures  for  the  youngest 

boy  who,  to   his  bitter   indignation,  had  to  be 

136 


CAMPING    NEAR   THE   GIANT   TREES.  I37 

left ;  but  he  was  too  young  to  ride  all  day  as 
did  his  brother  of  six  years,  often  carrying  be- 
fore him  on  the  saddle  "  Fanny  "  his  insepara- 
ble terrier.  "  Fan  "  was  not  to  come  and  was 
shut  up,  but  some  miles  from  the  house  she 
joined  the  carriage,  panting,  her  tongue  out, 
wriggling  herself  into  a  letter  S,  and  wagging 
her  tail  off  begging  to  be  forgiven  and  taken 
along.  You  cannot  willingly  disappoint  a  child 
or  a  dog  when  they  love  you,  so  "  Fan  "  went 
camping  too. 

We  were  charmed  by  the  pure  exquisite  morn- 
ing air  growing  sweeter,  more  incense-bearing, 
as  we  advanced  through  the  splendid  gloom  of 
this  pine  forest  which  makes  a  fitting  approach 
to  the  Giant  Trees. 

All  a  long  lovely  spring  day  we  traveled 
through  it,  stopping  about  three  o'clock  where 
a  fine  spring  and  a  farm  clearing  made  desirable 
camping-ground.  We  had  made  only  about 
fourteen  miles,  but  we  had  to  travel  step  by 
step  in   Indian  file  along  the  narrow  mule-trail, 


138  CAMPING    NEAR    THE    GIANT    TREES. 

and  it  was  continuous  ascent.  With  an  occa- 
sional rugged  steep  dip  and  then  a  climb  up  the 
opposite  bank  where  the  mountain  was  seamed 
by  small  ravines,  we  followed  this  narrow  bridle- 
path which  wound  among  the  trees.  They  stood 
as  close  as  their  great  size  permitted  and  the 
sunlight,  high,  high  above,  only  filtered  down  in 
golden  rays  and  splashes  on  the  thick  dark 
carpet  of  pine-tags,  grasses  and  forget-me-nots; 
these  crowded  to  border  the  trail,  and  the 
flowers  were  of  a  larger  size  and  more  vivid 
blue  than  we  had  ever  seen. 

They  made  stretches  of  clear  blue  far  into  the 
forest  shades.  The  odor  of  vanilla  was  every- 
where and  we  soon  fixed  it  as  coming  from  a 
low  orchid-like  plant  whose  brown  sheath  of 
narrow  leaves  inclosed  a  single  white  flower 
the  shape  and  size  of  a  pigeon's  egg.  We  were 
constantly  delighted  with  new  flowers,  and  as 
we  ascended  came  to  the  red  spike  of  the  snow- 
flower. 

As  our  day  wore  on  and  a  little  fatigue  was 


CAMPING    NEAR    THE    GIANT    TREES.  139 

added  to  the  solemn  unbroken  silence  of  the 
forest,  the  chatting  and  laughing  ceased,  and 
we  were  glad  at  one  very  rough  though  shallow 
ravine  to  dismount,  and  after  crossing  it  on  foot 
(and  all-fours)  make  a  halt.  Our  experienced 
men  made  a  miniature  fire  among  stones  and 
gave  us  refreshing  tea  in  tin  cups. 

The  grandeur  of  this  silent  forest,  this  "green 
solitude  where  awful  silence  dwells,"  told  on  us 
all ,  trees  of  six  and  eight  feet  in  diameter, 
rising  straight  as  masts  over  a  hundred  feet, 
the  golden-green  canopy  through  which  high 
above  only  a  mist  of  sunlight  came,  made  a 
cathedral  dignity  that  hushed  us. 

"  This  is  the  forest  primeval." 

We  came  on  the  farm-clearing  toward  three 
o'clock,  where  the  raw  plank  house,  the  huge 
stumps  of  felled  trees,  were  in  shocking  con- 
trast, nor  did  we  care  to  be  near  the  barn-yard. 

"  Do  make  the  camp  out  of  sight  and  sound 


140         CAMPING    NEAR    THE   GIANT   TREES. 

and  smell  of  the  ugly  place,"  which  was  done. 
The  hospitable  women  pressed  on  us  the  shelter 
of  their  new  house  —  that  we  should  prefer  to 
camp  out  when  a  good  house  could  be  had 
amused  them.  "  1  guess  you've  not  seen  much 
camping  —  we  have."  But  we  were  glad  of  the 
abundant  milk  and  buttermilk  and  eggs  we  got 
from  them. 

How  Hannah  rejoiced  in  it  all  !  So  did  I, 
but  I  had  my  long,  charming  experience  of  the 
coast-country  camping  in  1849,  ^"*^  there  is  a 
delight  to  a  first  experience  that  is  charming, 
which  does  not  fully  come  again.  Our  beds 
were  made  of  fresh  hay  ;  on  the  hay  were  piled 
many  layers  of  hemlock  boughs  —  the  soft  outer 
ends  ;  one  gets  critical  of  quality  in  tree  boughs 
as  bedding  ;  then  new  uncut  blue  blankets  were 
unrolled  and  laid  full  length  across  the  high 
elastic  pile  where  we  were  to  sleep  in  a  long 
row,  Hannah,  myself,  and  the  children,  with 
little  "  Fan  "  as  postscript.  It  was  so  high  ? 
pile  we  had  to  take    it  with    a  running   jump. 


CAMPING    NEAR    THE   GIANT   TREES,  141 

The  men's  camp  was  ofif  by  the  spring  and 
where  smoke  would  not  blow  toward  us. 

What  a  good  feast  we  made.  What  appetites, 
what  sleep !  Big  stars  were  close  overhead, 
perfumed  mountain  air  was  blowing  soft  around 
us  —  it  was  too  bad  we  knew  so  little  of  it,  for 
I  think  we  all  fell  asleep  while  exclaiming  in 
delight  over  our  springy  bed,  most  welcome 
after  the  day  in  the  saddle,  when  immediately  it 
was  again  day ;  the  tender,  serene  baby-hour  of 
opening  day.  A  screen  of  blankets  made  our 
dressing-room  where  plenty  of  fresh  water  with 
French  soap  and  Russia  towels  took  off  the 
rough   edge  (and   dust)  of  camp-life. 

Then  for  the  breakfast.  A  good  camp  cook 
can  make  excellent  bread  midway  between  the 
Spanish  tortilla  and  the  Australian  "  damper  " 
by  kneading  well  flour  and  water  and  a  little 
salt  —  no  sort  of  yeast  or  baking  stuff,  but 
strong  working  of  the  dough  which  is  baked  in 
thin  cakes  on  a  griddle,  a  most  palatable,  whole- 
some   bread   eaten  when   hot   and    brittle,  and 


142  CAMPFNO    NEAR    THE    GIANT    TREES. 

leathery  when  cold.  But  we  had  it  hot,  with 
eggs  and  slips  of  bacon,  tea  and  coffee,  and  lots 
of  hot  and  cold  milk,  and  orange  marmalade 
"  by  request."  And  appetite  !  of  a  quality  too 
eager  and  keen  to  be  known  apart  from  such 
out-door  life. 

Then  again  to  our  saddles. 

We  had  thought  nothing  could  be  more  nobly 
beautiful  than  the  forest  we  crossed  the  day  be- 
fore, but  the  new  day  brought  us  into  enchant- 
ing natural  parks  of  grassy  uplands  and  fir  and 
hemlock  growths  in  varying  stages  ;  the  layered 
boughs,  tipped  with  the  lighter  green  of  the  spring 
growth,  rested  in  tent-like  spread  on  soft  young 
grass  and  wild  flowers.  It  was  all  gracious  and 
open  and  smiling  with,  at  times,  a  break  in  the 
trees  giving  us  a  glimpse  across  the  valley  below 
of  the  near  Yosemite  range.  And  in  the  fresh 
stir  of  morning  air  we  laughed  and  sang  and 
'*  were  glad  we  were  alive,"  when  — 

"  What  is  that  ?     Is  that  ?  "  and  hush  of  won- 
der and  awe  subdued  us. 


CAMPING    NEAR    THE    GIANT    TREES.  143 

There,  blocking  the  way  as  a  light-house 
might,  rose  the  mighty  bulk  of  a  tawny-barked 
tree  over  thirty  feet  in  diameter.  Solid,  straight, 
uprearing  its  wonderful  column  unbroken  by 
any  limb  for  a  hundred  feet. 

Standing  apart,  with  natural  clearings  round 
about  them,  and  contrasted  by  the  smiling  young 
firs,  they  were  overwhelmingly  grand. 

The  impression  was  absolutely  new  —  and 
without  comparison. 

That  day  we  only  rode  near  them,  taking 
them  in  from  various  points  of  view.  Extend- 
ing our  ride  to  where  by  climbing  higher  we 
saw  the  near  outline  of  the  Yosemite  range 
with  its  further  background  of  the  snow-covered 
Sierra,  and  beyond,  the  white  glitter  of  Carson's 
Peak. 

It  was  after  seeing  this  country  that  Starr 
King  said  to  me  he  felt  there  that  that  was  the 
original  conception  of  the  Deity  —  "  the  first 
rough  sketch  of  our  world  —  but,  remembering 


144  CAMPING    NEAR    THE    GIANT    TREES. 

He  had  to  create  man  He  continued  his  work  on 
a  suitably  lowered  scale." 

Our  return  led  through  a  tract  lately  burned 
over  in  a  forest  fire,  and  by  the  time  we  got 
down  to  our  camp  at  Clarke's  Meadows  by  the 
bank  of  the  rushing  Merced  River,  we  were 
completely  blackened  with  the  charcoal  dust. 
We  had  begun  with  veils,  but  they  interfered 
with  clear  sight  and  were  soon  in  the  saddle 
pockets,  and  th:s  charcoal  penetrated  every- 
thing—  gloves  and  sleeves  were  hardly  a  barrier 
as  our  horses'  feet  continued  stirring  up  the 
sooty  dust. 

"  Clarke's  Meadows,"  then  a  far-ofT  and  soli- 
tary spot,  was  made  a  National  Park,  and  Clarke 
its  first  guardian.  He  welcomed  us  to  his 
domain  and  had  been  shooting  us  birds  and 
young  squirrels,  and  cutting  hemlock  tips  for 
our  night's  rest. 

But  first  we  had  to  get  rid  of  our  charcoal 
coating.  The  Merced  up  here  comes  down 
foaming  and  tumbling  over  great   bowlders   of 


CAMPING    NEAR   THE   GIANT   TREES.  145 

granite  and  eddying  off  into  still  pools  of  emer- 
ald brightness  of  sparkling  water.  Fringed  by 
low  evergreen  growths  and  hidden  by  great  bowl- 
ders these  were  ideally  lovely  bathing-places, 
but  shriek  on  shriek  followed  the  first  plunge, 
for  the  water  was  melted  ice  and  snow — so 
keenly  cold  it  cut  and  stung  us.  However, 
after  the  first  scarlet  burn  a  glorious  reaction 
set  in  and  the  exhilaration  was  beyond  telling 
in  words. 

We  had  appetites  that  would  have  given  flavor 
to  our  gloves,  but  the  birds  and  tender  young 
squirrels  broiled  on  sticks  before  the  fire  were 
really  delightful,  and  with  pride  Clarke  drew 
from  the  hot  ashes  potatoes  of  his  own  grow- 
ing. 

Again  stretched  on  a  luxuriously  fragrant 
elastic  hay  and  hemlock  bed,  with  the  tumble 
and  rush  of  the  mountain  torrent  for  music,  it 
was  almost  too  much  delight  when  Hannah's 
I'ovely  voice  breathed  out,  soft  and  lingeringly 
sweet,  the  serenade  from  Don  Pasquale: 


146         CAMPING    NEAR    THE   GIANT   TREES. 

"  O,  summer  night. 
So  softly  bright." 

Refreshed  and  full  of  new  life  we  gave  the 
next  day  to  leisurely  enjoyment  of  this  wonder- 
schiin   land    (avoiding    the    charcoal    district). 
Before  leaving  our  horses  to  explore   on  foot, 
the  cavalcade  rode  through  a  fallen  tree,  the 
men   on  horseback  having   space    above    their 
heads  as  we  filed  through  this  tunneled  trunk 
hollowed  out  by  fire.     There  were  other  fallen 
trees  not  burned.     One  had  fallen  very  recently ; 
the   earth  was    still  fresh   about   its  singularly 
shallow    roots.      With    a    surveyor's    tape    we 
measured  a  hundred  and  twenty-six  feet  of  bare 
trunk  before  the  first  bough  put  out.     Walking 
along  the  tree  to  its  base  we  dropped  the  line 
which  ran  out  to  thirty-two  and  a  half  feet,  after 
deducting  three  feet  above  the  base  as  allow- 
ance for  the  roots  and  very  slight  irregularities 
where    it   had    rested  on    the   ground.      Other 
measurements  gave  a  gradual  but  gentle  taper- 
ing, but  it  was  eighteen  feet  in  diameter  where 


CAMPING    NEAR   THE   GIANT   TREES.  147 

the  boughs  began.  The  boughs  of  these  giant 
Sequoia  are  very  short,  and  the  cones  small ; 
they  seem  insignificant  compared  with  the  vast 
height  and  bulk  of  the  trunk.  The  rugged 
cork-like  bark  was  curious  —  fully  a  foot  thick, 
cinnamon-colored,  and  in  shallow  flutings  like  a 
roughly-chiseled  column.  We  had  a  strangely 
interesting  time  in  this  Cathedral  of  Nature. 

As  we  wanted  to  return  in  one  day  we  were 
early  asleep  and  on  the  way  by  fair  daybreak. 
It  was  only  about  thirty-six  miles  in  all,  and  for 
the  last  twelve  we  would  have  the  carriage. 

That  early  morning  of  the  return  through  the 
great  pine  forest  was  something  to  remember 
gratefully. 

The  friendly  people  of  the  farm  were  horrified 
by  our  sunburned  faces,  scorched  and  peeling 
on  cheeks  and  noses  from  the  direct  light  and 
heat  of  the  thin  rarefied  air.  "Well,  well,"  one 
said,  "  you  looked  like  real  ladies,  but  now  you 
look  like  movers,"  and  they  saw  no  compen- 
sation for  such  roughing-it. 


J40  CAMPING    NEAR    THE    GIANT    TREES. 

We  kept  as  good  pace  as  the  broken  country 
allowed,  and  one  of  our  party  rode  ahead  and 
had  the  carriage  waiting  us  at  the  ford  below 
the  town  of  Mariposas. 

There  was  a  village  of  some  eighteen  hundred 
Chinese  just  there  by  the  ford.  They  were  not 
allowed  to  live  within  a  mile  or  so  of  the  town 
limit.  Hannah  fancied  driving  through  this 
Asiatic  settlement,  and  it  was  certainly  a  very 
foreign  unusual  village  with  perfectly  Chinese 
aspect.  We  trotted  along  its  narrow  lane  of  a 
main  street  almost  brushing  the  long  pendant 
signs  on  either  side,  when  we  saw  a  shop-front 
filled  with  coarse  but  gay  and  pretty  crockery. 
Our  escort  had  gone  on  into  the  town  of  Mari- 
posas and  only  one  horseman  remained  ;  the 
children  were  on  horseback,  and  my  friend  and 
myself  in  the  carriage  with  only  its  English 
coachman. 

The  alert  Chinese  shopman  answered  our 
signs  and  brought  out  to  us  bowls  and  jars  — 
we   had    bought   a   lot    of    pretty   common-ware 


CAMPING    NEAR   THE   GIANT    TREES.  I49 

bowls  with  their  decorated  China  spoons  — when 
we  found  ourselves  suddenly  closed  in  by  a 
swarm  of  excited  Chinese,  gesticulating  fiercely 
with  shrill  clacking  angry  talk,  and  converging 
on  us  their  angry  eyes. 

What  had  we  done  ?  What  was  the  matter  ? 
Burke  who  had  advised  our  not  going  through 
the  village  made  no  pause  to  question  "Why?" 
but  rode  quickly  to  the  rear  of  the  carriage, 
making  his  horse's  heels  clear  the  way  by  dig- 
ging spurs  into  it.  He  shouted  to  the  children 
to  ride  ahead  "  fast,"  snatching  "  Fan  "  from 
her  little  master  and  throwing  her  in  to  my 
care,  as  he  ordered  the  coachman  to  use  his 
whip  right  and  left  on  the  crowd  and  "  get  off," 
while  he,  revolver  lifted,  waved  them  back. 
They  only  fell  back  as  he  aimed  into  the  near- 
est group. 

We  dashed  off  as  we  were  ordered  ;  the  cries 
grew  fainter,  but  we  heard  no  shot,  and  soon 
had  the  relief  to  see  Burke  following  us  up  the 
hill,  looking  back,  revolver  lifted. 


150         CAMPING    NEAR    THE   GIANT   TREES. 

Nothing  more  came  of  it  than  a  big  fright  to 
us,  and  for  us,  and  a  wholesome  lesson  not  to  in- 
trude among  such  people.  These  were  miners 
—  mostly  the  tall  muscular  mountain-Chinese, 
such  as  were  afterwards  used  in  tens  of  thousands 
in  building  our  overland  railways. 

What  was  the  matter  we  never  knew.  Luckily 
we  had  paid  for  our  bowls,  but  a  complaint 
from  me  would  have  quickly  resulted  in  the 
destruction  of  their  village  and  the  whole  of  its 
people  being  driven  away  —  when  we  were  to 
blame  for  going  into  their  village  —  this  is  the 
law  of  the  strong  against  the  weak,  especially 
where  any  pretext  would  have  been  welcome  to 
race-prejudice.  So  we  kept  silence  and  would 
let  nothing  be  said  of  it. 

As  we  turned  into  our  own  gates  the  moon 
was  shining  bright  over  the  bungalow  and  the 
Colonel's  white  summer  clothes  made  him  into 
a  statue  by  the  fountain,  where  he  had  waited, 
listening,  and  relieved  enough  to  have  us  all 
back  in  the  fold  ;    and  not  even  too  tired  — for 


CAMPING    NEAR    THE    GIANT    TREES,  151 

except  the  accident-boy  who  put  himself  in  the 
way  of  fresh  hurts  by  cahnly  falling  asleep  on 
his  horse,  and  ended  the  journey  asleep  on  the 
carriage  floor,  we  were  all  animated  and  full  of 
the  delights  of  our  brief  expedition. 

We  found  waiting  us  an  invitation  to  a  ball. 
A  regular  ball,  with  a  printed  invitation  and  a 
committee  of  one  to  explain  that  our  acceptance 
would  certify  to  its  opening  a  new  era  of  good 
order  and  decorum.  The  Odd  Fellows  Asso- 
ciation had  built  a  Hall  and  Club  rooms  in 
Mariposas,  and  in  giving  this  opening  ball 
wished  our  aid  in  behalf  of  their  good  inten- 
tions. Of  course  on  this  idea  we  accepted 
willingly. 

But  was  there  ever  a  Ball  Committee  that  did 
not  get  into  hot  water  ? 


VIII. 


THE    BALL. 


WE  quite  looked  forward  to  this  Ball  and 
were  glad  of  it  as  visible  evidence  of 
the  new  reign  of  order,  and  respect  for  the  estab- 
lished usages  of  neighborly  intercourse. 

We  had  out  our  prettiest  gowns  and  decided 
what  to  wear,  and  as  the  town  of  Mariposas  was 
twelve  miles  distant  we  arranged  to  stay  over 
night  and  next  morning  visit  some  ladles  there, 
and  receive  any  who  might  want  to  visit  us. 
Altogether  it  was  to  be  a  bright  festival  time. 

When  the  whole  clouded  over. 

"The  Colonel"  was  in  San  Francisco  and  in 
his  absence  something  went  amiss  between  the 
superintendent  of  the  mills  and  one  of  the  men, 
who  did  a  most  shabby  and  unmanly  thing  in 
revenge. 

152 


THE    BALL.  1 53 

The  superintendent  was  a  cultivated  New 
York  man,  but  with  the  defect  of  thinking  him- 
self, therefore,  superior  to  "Western"  men,  and 
betraying  this  provincial  idea  by  small  airs  of 
superiority.  The  blacksmith  was  a  young  Ken- 
tuckian  of  good  family  but  "  wild,"  who  had 
brought  such  a  letter  from  Senator  Crittenden 
that  he  was  at  once  given  employment.  As 
health,  size  and  strength  were  his  chief  qualifi- 
cations he  took  what  he  could  do  and  became 
expert  in  smithy  work  on  machinery  and 
tools. 

There  were  chiefly  first-rate  men  in  all  the 
governing  positions,  but  this  superintendent 
lacked  that  crowning  merit,  which  comes  from 
nature  to  some  and  through  experience  to  many, 
of  taking  a  man  at  his  best  and  making  allow- 
ance for  what's  lacking;  not  requiring  all  to 
come  up  to  an  arbitrary  standard.  Where  a 
narrow-natured  man  from  the  East  sets  his 
standard  in  place  of  the  more  easy  larger  limit 
obtaining  in  the  West,  trouble  follows. 


154 


THE    BALL. 


It  did  here.  But  what  was  unpardonable  was 
the  manner  of  resenting  it. 

When  the  superintendent  went,  as  was  his 
habit  at  the  midday  hour  of  rest,  to  botanize 
along  the  creek,  the  blacksmith  set  upon  him 
and  beat  him  cruelly ;  not  only  making  an 
assault  on  a  man  he  knew  carried  no  weapons, 
but  having  with  him  two  of  his  friends  from  the 
village  to  aid  him  if  needed. 

But  it  was  quickly  overheard  and  stopped, 
and  the  facts  reported  to  me  in  the  absence  of 
*'  the  Colonel." 

I  sustained  the  book-keeper  in  his  intention 
of  immediate  dismissal  of  the  Kenluckian  —  it 
was  absolutely  necessary  in  order  to  maintain 
discipline,  though  as  the  offender  was  a  "  popu- 
lar man  "  and  the  superintendent  decidedly  not 
so,  there  was  sure  to  be  personal  feeling  against 
this  step. 

Soon  a  protest  reached  me  and  I  was  asked 
to  stay  proceedings  until  the  Colonel's  return. 

This  1  refused,  admitting  the  vexations  given, 


THE    BALL.  155 

and  the  merits  of  Senator  Crittenden's  protege, 
but  allowing  nothing  to  weigh  against  the  out- 
rageously mean  attack  of  three  against  one. 

Then  came  the  further  complication  that  this 
young  Kentuckian  was  not  only  an  Odd  Fellow 
but  very  active  about  the  Ball  and  one  of  the 
Committee  of  Reception. 

Hannah  felt  as  I  did,  that  it  would  be  impos- 
sible for  us  to  go  now.  To  go,  knowingly,  to  be 
received  by  and  entertained  by  a  man  who  had 
made  a  singularly  cowardly  attack  on  the  chief 
man  of  our  mills,  whose  conduct  had  deserved 
and  received  instant  dismissal  from  the  works, 
was  a  contradiction  not  possible.  And  yet  it 
was  very  hard  on  the  other  young  men  that  they 
should  lose  guests  they  so  much  wished  to  have. 

I  had  to  write  to  the  Head  of  the  Order  giv- 
ing him  these  reasons  why  we  should  not  be 
able  to  attend  the  Ball,  and  telling  him  of  the 
sincere  regret  it  was  to  me  not  to  be  able  to 
take  my  part  in  what  was  a  good  event  in  our 
frontier  society. 


156  THE    BALL. 

They  are  quick  to  think  and  quick  to  act 
"out  West." 

Quickly  the  answer  came,  fully  appreciating 
my  reasons,  and  asking  again  that  we  would 
come  as  "the  Committee  of  Reception  had 
been  changed." 

These  thorough  people  had  had  other  invita- 
tions immediately  printed,  omitting  the  name 
of  the  offending  Kentuckian. 

An  authorized  person  told  me  the  man's  act 
was  strongly  condemned  and  he  would  most 
probably  not  be  present ;  but  that  he  was  a  very 
popular  man  and  had  a  following  of  friends 
who  were  angrily  excited  and  might  make 
trouble  if  we  came.  So  that  it  was  fair  to  let 
us  know  there  might  be  something  unpleasant 
—  not  if  the  better-minded  could  prevent,  but 
it  was  in  the  chances. 

I  heartily  wished  we  could  keep  a\va)%  but 
when  all  the  body  of  Odd  Fellows  had  gone  such 
lengths  to  meet  my  feeling,  it  seemed  I  must 
take  my  risks  to  show  I  valued  their  approval. 


THE    BALL.  157 

So  we  went.  Our  good  gowns  sent  forward 
in  the  morning  to  the  nice  village  inn  where  we 
were  to  stay  the  night,  ourselves  following  in 
the  cool  of  the  afternoon ;  Hannah  and  myself 
in  the  carriage  and,  riding  ahead  on  horseback, 
my  daughter  with  the  superintendent,  and  our 
invaluable  Burke. 

We  were  not  in  a  very  holiday  humor.  The 
"superior"  tone  of  the  superintendent  seemed 
to  have  increased  and  be,  as  it  were,  justified. 
The  committee  had  renewed  their  invitation  to 
him  and  with  it  sent  a  manly  letter  of  regret 
that  one  of  their  Order  should  have  so  miscon- 
ducted himself. 

I  thought  nothing  obliged  him  to  go.  But  he 
chose  to  do  so  and  to  go  with  us  —  though  it 
was  flaunting  the  red  flag  at  the  bull. 

We  were  nearing  the  end  of  our  drive  when 
round  the  turn  of  a  sharp  hill  came  a  small 
band  of  horsemen.  At  their  head  the  tall, 
broad-shouldered  Kentuckian. 

I  must  say  "  my  heart  jumped  to  my  throat" 


158  THE    BALL. 

—  "he  has  come  out  with  his  friends  to  turn  us 
back"  was  my  thought.  (Burke  and  Isaac 
thought  even  worse.)  But  these  were  good 
Western  men,  after  all,  and  they  just  filed  by, 
taking  the  outer  edge  of  the  narrow  road,  and 
the  big  offender  touched  his  broad  hat  to  me  in 
passing.  That  touched  me.  I  returned  his 
salute  with  good  feeling. 

To  recognize  he  had  done  wrong,  to  accept 
punishment  and  to  give  this  evidence  that  no 
further  disturbance  should  be  made  was  truly 
manly.     We  felt  why  he  was  a  "popular  man." 

We  dressed  ourselves  carefully  and  behaved 
our  nicest  at  the  Ball.  I  had  asked  Burke  to 
let  the  committee  know  how  sorry  I  was  to 
break  up  any  part  of  their  ball,  and  how  right 
and  manly  I  thought  it  of  the  Kentuckian  to 
give  me  this  evidence  of  his  intention  to  pre- 
vent trouble. 

And  then  I  did  my  best  to  make  my  being 
there  agreeable. 

Such  heallliy,  happy-faced  young  wives   and 


THE    BALL. 


159 


mothers  were  there.  Girls  were  few.  They 
were  instantly  married  and  in  fact  were  brought 
there  married.  It  was  a  very  young  commu- 
nity. The  certainty  now  of  good  order  and 
entire  propriety  had  made  men  willing  to  bring 
their  wives,  some  from  quite  a  distance.  In 
several  cases  the  baby  too.  There  were  half  a 
dozen  of  these  in  a  room  to  the  rear  where  our 
wraps  were  laid,  and  where  two  beds  had  been 
made  to  accommodate  some  special  friends. 

An  atmosphere  of  constraint  had  prevailed  in 
the  beginning,  but  the  good  music  and  the 
growing  enjoyment  of  the  guests  changed  that 
into  a  more  natural  heartiness  and  soon  it  was 
as  animated  as  need  be.  The  hall  was  really 
fine,  and  though  flowers  were  not  yet  grown 
there,  native  evergreens  and  artificial  flowers, 
our  flag,  and  abundant  lights  in  handsome 
chandeliers  made  it  a  pretty  hall  for  any  place. 

The  supper  was  really  beautiful  as  well  as 
excellent.  Only  those  who  knew  frontier  life 
in  those  chaotic  times  realize  what  unexpected 


l6o  THE    BALL. 

"  finds "  one  made  in  unlikely  places.  The 
elaborate  dishes  usual  to  fine  suppers  were 
here  in  beauty,  and  for  confectionery  it  was  as 
good  in  style  and  delicate  excellence  as  though 
we  were  in  a  large  city. 

Hannah's  outspoken  delight  and  surprise 
pleased  every  one  —  her  charming  manners  and 
sincere  enjoyment  of  this  "  wild  West  "  episode 
propitiated  all  and  effaced  any  soreness  that 
might  have  lingered  among  the  friends  of  the 
absent. 

The  german  was  not  a  part  of  the  programme, 
but  Hannah  suggested  a  Virginia  reel  after  the 
supper  and  it  was  danced  with  great  spirit,  and 
a  gayety,  added  to  by  some  of  the  young  men 
—  unmarried  you  may  be  sure  —  who  had 
seized  the  chance  while  the  mothers  were  at 
supper  to  change  the  cloaks  and  wraps  on  the 
babies  and  then  transfer  them  to  opposite  beds, 
in  short,  to  "  mix  them  babies  up."  The  scene 
of  confusion  this  created  was  full  of  fun,  even 
the   bewildered   young    mothers  joining  in  the 


THE   BALL.  l6l 

laugh ;  they  were  young  and  happy,  having  a 
thoroughly  good  time  in  a  harmless  way,  and 
all  was  good  —  even  a  joke  against  themselves. 

We  came  away  about  twelve,  but  the  others 
kept  it  up  stoutly  until  daylight  did  appear. 

And  so  ended  happily  what  had  seemed  must 
inevitably  be  a  big  disturbance.  It  was  a  fine 
advance  in  popular  feeling  since  the  year  before 
when  violence  had  been  accepted  as  the  normal 
condition,  and  the  sheriff  had  declined  to  do 
his  duty  and  call  out  z.  posse  because,  as  he  said, 
"  it  would  be  no  use." 

We  had  our  pleasant  morning  of  visits,  and 
making  acquaintance  with  outlying  neighbors, 
and  were  pressed  to  visit  around  to  their  homes, 
but  the  time  had  come  for  my  friend  to  return 
to  New  York  and  we  had  to  go  home. 

She  said  then  and  saj-s  yet  it  was,  all  told, 
the  most  delightful  three  months  of  her  life  — 
that  it  was  so  new,  so  full  of  large  ideas,  rubbed 
out  so  much  ignorance  and  gave  such  different 
views  of   life,   was  so   full   of  keen   delight  in 


l62  THE    BALL. 

nature,  and  that  she  felt  she  gave  as  well  as 
received  so  much  pleasure,  that  nothing  else 
compared  with  it. 

It  was  flat  without  her.  The  lovely  voice 
was  only  one  of  the  charms  lost  to  us. 

Now  the  weather  was  growing  into  the  de- 
pressing summer  heat.  Only  heat  is  too  tepid 
a  word  to  use.  Our  valley  was  a  trough  between 
high  mountain  ranges  and  the  only  winds  came 
over  the  treeless  hot  plains  like  a  furnace  blast. 
Even  on  a  marble-topped  table  many  layers  of 
newspaper  had  to  be  ^ut  between  my  arm  and 
the  table  when  I  wrote,  for  flesh  could  not 
stand  the  contact  of  the  heated  marble  which 
could  not  cool  off  in  the  hot  nights  —  often  it 
was  over  ninety  degrees  at  midnight. 

As  I  would  not  go  to  San  Francisco  a  camp 
was  made  for  me  on  the  mountain  just  back  of 
us,  in  a  spot  Isaac  knew.  It  was  a  steep  stony 
hard  climb  of  nearly  five  thousand  feet,  but 
across  the  summit,  and  a  little  below  on  the  east- 
ern face  was  a  spring  of  great  size,  and  fine  cold 


THE    BALL.  163 

water  —  a  miniature  lake ;  and  on  the  long  bench 
ox  plateau^  where  was  this  water,  was  also  a  beau- 
tiful growth  of  "  States  Oak."  This  was  the 
local  name  for  the  large-leaved,  deciduous  oak 
—  in  the  valley  we  had  only  the  small-leaved 
evergreen  oak —  one  gets  very  tired  of  unchang- 
ing foliage,  of  unfailing  leaves. 

A  ride  up,  and  inspection  decided  "the 
Colonel  "  and  in  a  few  days  we  were  comfort- 
ably installed  there.  This  place  had  not  only 
the  shade  and  water  needed,  but  a  glorious  view 
of  the  Yosemite  which  seemed  not  over  ten 
miles  off,  though  really  thirty.  The  pure  and 
rarefied  air  destroyed  the  distance  to  the  sight. 
This  eastern  face  of  our  mountain,  Mt.  Bullion, 
was  in  benches  with  straight  steep  descents, 
presenting  almost  a  flat  face  to  the  immediate 
valley  thousands  of  feet  below  ;  from  which  rose 
opposite  in  successive  curves,  like  some  giant  am- 
phitheater, first  the  low  hills  then  the  grand 
rock-formation  of  the  Yosemite  country. 

Beyond  that  still  was  the  snow-capped  Sierra 


164  THE    BALL. 

range  and,  far  off,  the  glistening  Carson's  Peak 
caught  the  first  morning  light.  Dawn  came 
early  up  there  these  summer  days.  The  birds 
began  their  subdued  half-notes  about  three, 
then  a  tremble  of  gold  dust  got  into  the  cool 
gray  sky ;  rarely  we  had  a  rosy  sunrise,  but  the 
many  tones  of  yellows  were  gorgeous  beyond 
description. 

We  were  in  real  nature.  The  birds  so  un- 
knowing that  even  woodpeckers  sat  near  on  the 
same  fallen  trunk,  watching  us  intently  and 
curiously.  And  a  quail  led  her  young  brood 
regularly  every  morning  to  pick  up  the  rice  and 
crumbs  scattered  about  the  camp  fire.  Isaac 
was  our  camp-cook,  and  like  a  true  hunter  pro- 
tected the  creatures  he  did  not  need  to  kill  for 
food.  Incessant,  causeless  shooting,  betrays 
the  novice  or  a  cold  hard  nature. 

We  had  our  riding  horses  up  there  and  found 
superb  views  and  most  pleasant  rides  along  the 
level  crest  of  the  ridge.  Once  up  there,  a 
fairly  easy   way  for  horses  could   be   followed 


THE    BALL.  165 

for  miles,  but  it  was  not  prudent  for  us  to  be 
far  out  of  range  from  our  camp.  But  it  was 
good  to  go  about  easily  and  see  such  a  stretch 
of  view.  To  the  east  was  all  the  Yosemite  and 
the  mountains  beyond,  while  to  the  west  we 
looked  over  the  lower  range  that  hedged  in  our 
valley,  down  to  the  San  Joaquin  plains,  crossed 
at  intervals  by  the  steel-like  glitter  of  the 
Merced,  the  Stanislaus,  the  Tuolumne  and  other 
rivers,  and  far  off  the  dark  timber-belt  showed 
where  the  San  Joaquin  River  bounded  all  on 
the  west. 

The  beautiful  golden  pheasant  with  its  two 
long  glittering  tail  feathers  dragging  (as  a  tur- 
key does)  in  sign  of  agitation,  did  not  fly,  but 
just  moved  aside  from  our  horses ;  and  the 
pretty  crested  quail  with  its  tuft  of  velvety 
black  feathers  was  not  frightened.  We  gath- 
ered the  most  lovely  wild  flowers,  fresher,  more 
vivid  and  larger  than  those  in  the  valley. 

Not  a  human  sound  to  mar  the  beautiful 
nature.      But    near    sunset    a    welcome    long- 


l66  THE   BALL. 

echoing  Indian-call,  the  survival  of  very  differ- 
ing camp-life,  announced  the  coming  of  "  the 
Colonel."  Then  Isaac  bestirred  himself  and 
savory  odors  came  across  from  his  tire,  where 
we  would  gather  and  make  the  dinner-supper 
that  closed  the  day.  For  with  the  dark  came 
sleep.  There  was  no  sleeping  after  that  golden 
sunrise  flooded  the  air.  And  the  days  brought 
too  much  exercise,  too  much  thinking,  for  a 
busy  man  to  forego  his  sleep. 

On  Sundays  we  had  lots  to  talk  of  and  to 
read  together  —  I  being  an  idler  had  all  the 
time  for  reading,  and  there  was  much  to  read. 
The  Sadowa  campaign  was  in  progress  and  we 
had  our  English  and  French  journals,  war-maps 
and  illustrated  papers,  and  the  home  mail,  and 
some  good  books.  Buckle's  History  of  Civili- 
zation we  read  here  in  fit  surroundings.  We 
were  in  great  comfort  and  content,  and  charmed 
to  have  found  such  a  refuge  from  the  heat  until 
with  the  fall  rains,  fresh  air  returned  to  the  val- 
ley.    Then  we  would  leave  our  beautiful  camp. 


IX. 


THE   CAMP   ON    MT.    BULLION. 

AS  we  were  to  remain  up  here  until  the 
rains  began  much  trouble  was  taken  to 
make  it  comfortable  camping.  A  board  floor, 
raised  well  above  the  ground  to  disconcert  frogs 
and  snakes  and  such  forest  creatures,  was  pro- 
nounced indispensable.  But  how  to  haul  planks 
where  it  was  hard  scrambling  for  mountain- 
bred  horses  and  mules  ? 

Planks  were  hauled  on  the  mining  road  to  the 
mines,  three  miles  from  the  village.  Here  there 
was  a  dip  in  the  range  and  the  crest  of  the  ridge 
could  be  met  and  followed  back  three  miles  to 
our  camp,  which  was  abreast  of  the  village. 
Some  clearing  work  was  done  to  open  the  wa}', 
then  the  planks  were  lashed  to  the  sides  of  oxen 
used  to  mountain  work,  and  in  this  way  the 
167 


l68  THE    CAMP    ON    MT.    BULLION. 

flooring  was  hauled  along  the  crest.  It  was 
troublesome  but  it  was  a  success,  and  a  jrreat 
comfort. 

The  canvas  roof  was  secured  to  four  young 
oaks  growing  near  together;  their  inner  boughs 
were  lopped  back  leaving  only  a  leafy  dome 
which  not  only  kept  us  cool  with  the  thick  large 
leaves,  but  their  dancing  shadows  frescoed  our 
ceiling  beautifully.  One  wall  we  lowered  and 
fastened  to  the  floor,  but  the  other  three  sides 
were  stretched  out  to  trees  —  giving  broad  piaz- 
zas where  on  the  well-cleared  ground  our  steamer- 
chairs,  camp  stools  and  folding-tables  (by  ox- 
train),  made  luxurious  comfort. 

Mattresses  also  were  brought  up  and  were 
laid  on  piles  of  fragrant  heather.  A  plank  set 
edgewise  across  the  floor  restrained  the  heather 
and  kept  tidy  the  open  part  of  the  broad,  raised 
floor.  Experts  in  tent-life  will  recognize  this 
was  elegance  combined  with  comfort. 

Smaller  canvas  houses  with  no  floor  or  roof, 
other  than  spreading  oak  boughs,  made  dress- 


THE    CAMP    ON    MT.    BULLION.  1 69 

ing-rooms.  With  india-rubber  bath  tubs  one  is 
independent  and  the  sun  and  fresh  air  coming 
direct  upon  the  sl^in  added  to  the  reviving  ef- 
fects of  this  mountain  life. 

The  growth  of  fine  deciduous  oaks  covered  a 
long  space,  some  miles,  and  was  a  famous  resort 
for  grizzly  bears;  their  "wallows"  were  all 
around  about.  With  the  acorns,  the  great  spring 
and  the  fresh  cool  air,  it  was  a  fixed  resort  for 
them  in  the  acorn  season,  which,  fortunately, 
was  not  near.  For  animals  are  more  bound  by 
the  "correct  season"  in  their  migrations  than 
even  fashionables  on  their  tours.  It  would  not 
have  been  amusing  to  come  back  from  a  ride 
and  find  the  Great  Bear,  the  Middle-sized  Bear 
and  the  Teeny-weeny-little  Bear  sitting  in  our 
chairs. 

But  it  was  all  peaceful  and  beautiful  beyond 
telling.  The  grand  beauly  of  the  Yosemite 
country,  lying  just  across  from  us  like  a  great 
panorama  in  a  vast  amphitheater,  was  of  endless 
attraction.     Sunrise  and  sunset  made  marvels 


170  THE    CAMP    ON    MT.    BULLION, 

of  color  and  varying  effects,  and   the  still  blaze 
of  golden  noon  had  its  own  splendid  charm. 

The  rides  were  always  a  delight.  Nature 
could  not  be  more  beautiful  and  had  also  the 
rare  charm  of  being  untouched.     It  was  indeed 

"  a  land 

Where  no  man  had  been  since  the  world  begun." 

With  the  milk  and  eggs  and  freshly-killed 
chickens  came  up  —  on  horseback  all  —  the 
daily  mail.  The  progress  of  the  Sadowa  Cam- 
paign became  increasingly  interesting.  The  low- 
ered wall  of  our  canvas  house  was  soon  papered 
over  with  war  maps  and  likenesses  of  men 
making  the  names  since  so  famous.  Bismarck 
was  lifting  the  crowns  from  the  heads  of  smaller 
kings  and  making  ready  to  place  the  Imperial 
Crown  on  the  head  of  his  own  German  king. 
And  we  began  then  the  personal  interest  in  the 
young  Crown-Prince  who  had  so  lately  given  the 
bit  of  white  heather  to  the  Daughter  of  England. 
From  his  father  decorating  him  with  the  Cross 


THE    CAMP    ON    MT.    BULLION.  171 

of  Merit,  to  the  last  long  struggle  against  death 
he  was  always  a  noble  figure,  modest,  brave, 
patient,  honorable  and  true,  a  real  hero. 

Apart  as  we  were  from  ordinary  life  and  lifted 
above  detail,  great  events  and  figures  of  history 
found  themselves  on  natural  surroundings  among 
these  grand  features  of  nature. 

To  the  great  delight  of  the  little  boys  the 
service-berries  were  getting  ripe  ;  a  larger, 
more  juicy,  richer-flavored  form  of  our  whortle- 
berry. 

Children  who  have  the  disadvantage  of  only 
town-life,  or  the  opera  bouffe  life  of  "  summer 
resorts,"  know  nothing  of  the  many  and  progres- 
sive delights  of  country  children.  To  the  town 
boy  an  apple  is  represented  by  pennies  and  a 
fruit  stall.  He  knows  nothing  of  the  education 
in  weather,  in  patience,  in  observation  of  the 
many  phases  that  lead  from  the  icicled  tree  to 
its  rosy  blossoms,  and  the  little  green  knobs  he 
eyes  without  fingering,  on  to  the  fully-ripened 


172  THE   CAMP   ON    MT.    BULLION. 

fruit,  which  has  for  him  a  bouquet  of  meaning 
and  flavor  and  triumph  money  cannot  buy. 

One  day  in  the  early  morning  first  one  then 
many  Indian  women  climbed  into  view  from 
below  on  the  eastern  side  ;  smiling,  pointing  to 
the  big,  conical  baskets  strapped  to  their  backs, 
and  settling  to  work  to  gather  the  berries  which 
they  did  in  orderly  busy  fashion  ;  going  down 
to  their  valley  at  nightfall  with  full  baskets.  But 
leaving  untouched  the  bushes  near  our  camp, 
which  I  thought  very  nice  of  them  as  this  was  their 
harvest  of  a  luxury.  They  were  not  the  Indians 
we  knew,  but  even  more  Indian,  so  to  speak. 

They  were  so  pleased  with  an  impromptu 
luncheon  of  hot  rice  with  sugar,  and  a  dessert 
of  jam  on  crackers.  They  squatted  around  the 
spring  —  in  Scotland  it  would  have  been  called 
a  "  tarn  "  —  eating  slowly  with  many  soft  laughs 
of  pleasure.  Something  sweet  to  eat  and  pict- 
ures to  look  at  made  for  them  ideal  delight. 
Pictures  of  horses  in  the  illustrated  papers,  es- 
pecially battle-scenes,  excited   them    intensely. 


THE    CAMP    ON    MT.    BULLION.  1 73 

They  folded  them  carefully,  wrapping  them  in 
cloths  and  carried  them  off  to  their  huts ;  to  be 
a  source  of  wonder  and  mind-opening  never  im- 
agined by  the  artists. 

This  was  all  that  broke  our  quiet,  until  one 
morning  after  "the  Colonel  "  had  gone  down  to 
the  mines  there  came  a  group  of  Indian  men, 
who  made  for  Isaac's  part  of  the  camp  and  soon 
were  in  earnest  conference. 

I  was  not  paying  attention  to  this,  but  pres- 
ently Burke  the  invaluable  (who  was  always  on 
guard  when  the  Colonel  was  off)  came  over 
with  a  disquieting  message. 

The  taller  of  the  three  Indians  was  a  young 
chief  and  warrior  of  renown  belonging  to  a  rest- 
less and  fighting  tribe  of  Indians  to  the  south- 
west of  us.  The  others  were  his  aids-de-camp ; 
they  all  knew  some  English  and  Spanish  and  our 
men  understood  some  local  Indian  words  and 
both  were  familiar  with  sign-language. 

After  many  annoyances  from,  and  smaller 
conflicts  with  the  whites,  this  chief's  tribe  had 


174  'I'HE    CAMP    ON    MT.    BULLION. 

been  attacked,  unprovoked,  they  said,  by  miners 
in  force,  on  mining-ground  whicli  they  held  as 
theirs;  and  tliey  saw  all  Indians  must  band 
together  for  protection.  They  had  retaliated  on 
smaller  parties  of  whites,  and  now  it  was  any 
whites  against  any  Indians,  and,  maybe,  any 
Indians  against  any  whites. 

All  the  Indians  their  side  the  range  must 
stand  by  one  another.  Their  runners  were  out 
assembling  the  young  men.  The  long  bench  on 
which  our  camp  was,  lay  on  one  line  they  must 
travel  in  assembling  as  they  were  to  come  from 
across  the  Merced  (our  boundary).  This  young 
chief  was  also  from  an  outlying  tribe,  but,  as  he 
said,  his  people  knew  about  "  Don  Flemon " 
and  that  he  was  a  friend  to  Indians,  and  that 
his  women  were  up  in  the  mountain  by  the  big 
spring  (Indians  always  know  all  they  need  to 
know).  For  that,  he  came  to  say  we  must  go 
down  and  be  safe  in  our  house  by  the  mill  and 
village.  For  the  Indians  coming  to  join  him 
might  not  be  good  to  any  whites.     They  did  not 


THE    CAMP    ON    MT.    BULLION.  1 75 

know  about  us  and  he  could  not  stay  away  from 
Jiis  people  to  protect  us.  And  he  did  not  want 
harm  to  come  to  Don  Flemon's  family. 

This  was  a  break-up. 

Our  own  men  saw  the  risk  was  too  great. 
"There's  always  enough  ornery  Injuns,"  Isaac 
said,  "to  try  a  little  stealing  —  horses,  or  any- 
thing they  fancy — then  there'd  be  trouble." 

It  was  contrary  to  his  ideas  to  take  a  woman 
into  council,  but  the  young  chief  was  so  anxious 
to  make  us  safe  that  he  came  over  with  Isaac 
and  Burke  when  they  crossed  to  tell  me  of  this. 

He  remained  standing  too,  as  they  did,  with 
his  eyes  a  little  turned  away  but  listening  and 
noticing  intently,  his  whole  young  lithe  bronze 
figure  rigid  from  intentness.  Perhaps  he  had 
some  Spanish  blood,  for  he  was  of  higher  breed 
and  more  commanding  air  than  any  Indian  I 
had  seen  up  there. 

The  one  drawback  to  our  beautiful  camp,  for 
me,  was  the  rarefied  air  at  this  elevation  which 
made  me  often  very  dizzy  and  faint;  lying  down 


176  THE    CAMP    ON    MT.    BULLION. 

with  mustard-leaves  on  the  chest  partly  counter- 
acted this.  I  was  lying  back  now  in  a  steamer 
chair  and  it  made  me  smile  to  myself  to  see 
what  an  odd  reception  I  was  holding,  but  it  was 
no  laughing  matter. 

"  How  soon  must  we  go  ?  To-day  ?  the  night  ? 
or  to-morrow  ?  "  I  spoke  in  Spanish.  Manana 
is  a  word  ingrained  in  Spanish  countries. 

'''' Cuando  vamos  —  ahora?  la  noc/ie?  0^  man- 
ana  ?  " 

^^  Mana/ia,"  spoke  up  the  bronze,  but  without 
looking  at  me;  then  to  Isaac  with  one  finger 
lifted  from  his  closed  hand  :  "  C/fia  noche —  uo 
mas^  Pointing  over  and  downwards  to  our  val- 
ley :   "  A?ida  7nananay 

"  The  Colonel  "  found  it  wise  to  move  us  back 
home,  though  the  heat  was  cruel.  But  we  had  had 
about  six  weeks  of  real  camping  in  the  solitudes 
of  most  beautiful  and  grand  nature.  Enough 
to  leave  unequalled  pictures  forever  in  memory. 

The  awful  heat  was  too  much  and  we  were  all 
sent  down  to  the  cool  sea  air  of  San  Francisco, 


THE    CAMP    ON    MT.    BULLION.  177 

and  matters  being  now  quite  in  order  we  settled 
into  our  lovely  home  there  named  by  Starr  King 
our  "  Lodge  by  the  Golden  Gate;"  where  the 
waters  of  the  great  bay  washed  the  rocks  of  our 
headland  and  we  looked  down  over  roses  and 
geraniums  to  the  decks  of  passing  ships  making 
their  way  out  to  the  Pacific. 

Here  the  war  found  us  in  1861. 

When  I  came  back  into  my  old  home  at  St. 
Louis  to  find  such  discord,  such  dangers  and  such 
malice,  envy  and  all  uncharitableness,  that  the 
Sierra  life  with  its  mining  riot,  the  Indian  trou- 
bles, all  the  things  that  seemed  hard  to  bear 
there  were  light  by  comparison. 

I  had  thought  I  was  done  for  always  with  fron- 
tier and  camp  experiences,  but  there  is  no 
"never"  and  no  "forever." 

After  many  years  of  repose  we  were  again  in 
old  familiar  scenes,  but  wilder,  more  fantastically 
dreary,  more  truly  remote  from  civilization  than 
I  had  ever  before  met  with. 


178  THE    CAMP    ON    MT.    BULLION. 

The  sparse  settlers  always  spoke  of  "going 
inside "  when  they  went  into  California,  for 
Arizona  was  truly  "outside  "  of  all  usual  life. 
Now  a  brief  ten  years  has  changed  all  that;  one 
transcontinental  railway  crosses  it  at  the  south- 
ern and  another  at  its  northern  end,  and  shorter 
lines  of  railroad  connect  them.  So  this  old 
travel  is  only  the  memory  of  a  troubled  dream. 

But  there  was  not  a  mile  of  railroad  within 
the  Territory  when  we  went  there  ;  the  South- 
ern Pacific  ended  with  the  railway  bridge  span- 
ning the  Colorado  —  the  dividing  line  between 
California  and  Arizona.  A  question  of  taxes 
rose  between  the  Territory  and  the  Railway  so 
they  built  no  more  road  until  that  should  be 
fairly  settled. 

Meantime  you  dropped  from  the  travel  of  full 
civilization  to  untouched  nature,  at  Yuma. 

Strange-looking  nature  to  American  eyes, 


"  A  dreary  waste  of  stagnant  sand 
Stretching  afar  like  ocean's  strand;** 


THE   CAMP    ON    MT.    BULLION.  1 79 

the  tawny  yellow  of  the  sand-waste  cut  by  the 
deep-rolling,  dull-yellow  waters  of  the  Colorado  ; 
scattered  about  in  irregular  lines  and  groups  the 
brown-yellow  adobe  houses,  one-storied,  flat- 
roofed,  with  door  and  window  mere  gaps  left  in 
the  wall ;  over  all  the  fierce  red-yellow  glare  of 
sun-fire  rather  than  sunshine.  Not  a  tree,  not 
a  bush,  nor  a  blade  of  grass. 

It  looked  like  far-away  heathen  lands  —  awfully 
lonesome  from  the  absence  of  every  accustomed 
home-sight.  But  to  us  came  a  familiar  and  dear 
object  —  the  blue  uniform  of  our  army;  like 
our  flag  it  only  makes  the  true  feeling  it  has 
earned  when  we  come  upon  it  in  far-away  places. 
It  meant  now  a  host  of  delightful  things.  We 
found  waiting  a  comfortable  ambulance  with  its 
big  handsome  mules,  and  the  officer  in  charge 
of  the  Quartermaster's  Station  at  Yuma  took 
us  to  his  quarters,  where  we  found  everything 
that  intelligence,  order,  cleanliness  and  kind- 
ness could  do  against  conditions  the  most 
unfavorable. 


l8o  THE    CAMP    ON    MT.    BULLION. 

Throughout  our  far  wild  Western  countries 
these  military  outposts  are  the  beacon  lights  of 
civilization  ;  they,  in  their  way,  do  missionary 
work  too  —  and  are  not  without  their  own  form 
of  martyrdom. 

Here  we  rested  two  days;  then  a  long  fare- 
well to  all  "  use  and  wont  "  and  a  plunge  into 
the  untried.  Into  an  experience  that  cannot  be 
repeated,  for  all  is  changed  now  that  the  soli- 
tudes are  crossed  by  railways,  and  with  them 
have  come  people  and  busy  life. 

Deep  down  in  the  silent  depths  of  the  hearts 
of  most  women  who  have  had  the  life  of  uproot- 
ing and  transplanting  that  goes  to  make  the 
new  life  of  far  countries,  must  lie  the  Scotch 
wail : 

"  Oh  ifs  home  !  hame  !     I  fain  woidd  be 
Hame  again  to  my  ain  coiintree." 

Often  and  often  I  have  met  this.  Though  it 
was  but  a  passing  phase  with  me  yet  the  chances 
of  separation  add  to  its  pain,  and  these   patient 


THE   CAMP    ON    MT.    BULLION.  l8l 

pioneer  women  knew  that  the  men  burned  their 
ships  and  took  no  backward  look  —  it  is  always 
the  woman  who  looks  lingeringly  to  what  she  is 
leaving,  who  watches  for  the  last  sight  of  her 
sinking  ship  with  a  sinking  heart.  Then,  they 
rise  to  their  work  and  do  it  patiently,  bravely, 
cheerfully.  But  the  old  home,  the  early  asso- 
ciations are  all  there  "  deeply  buried  from  human 
sight,"  and  start  into  the  bright  life  of  undying 
youthful  memories  at  the  touch  of  sympathy. 


X. 


A   "FAR   COUNTREE.  ' 

YOU  frighten  me.  You  talk  as  though  we 
were  going  to  the  hot  place  itself." 

"  So  you  are,  nearly.  Aden  may  be  hotter, 
but  the  sea  helps  it  —  Yuma  is  the  hottest,  I 
rather  think." 

Of  the  four  men  at  table  three  knew  Yuma 
and  two  had  also  been  at  Aden,  so  their  com- 
parisons were  from  personal  experience.  It 
was  a  hot  night  of  summer,  in  Washington, 
itself  a  most  uncomfortable  summer  climate, 
but  the  heat  was  alleviated  in  every  possible 
way.  The  dining-room  looked  into  a  square 
where  old  trees  and  lawns,  and  a  generous 
fountain  freshened  the  night  air.  A  parasol 
shade  of  fringed  green  silk  kept  in  its  cool 
shade  those  sitting  around  the  table  and  left 
182 


A    "  FAR    COUNTREE,"  183 

bright  light  only  on  the  center  piece  of  flowers 
that  nearly  covered  it  —  lovely  fringed  Japan 
hollyhocks,  their  whiteness  veiled  by  the  maiden- 
hair fern  that  shaded  the  flowers  and  bordered 
them.  All  was  in  contrast  to  our  coming  journey 
through  hot  desert  sands  of  which  we  were 
speaking.  General  Sherman,  a  Russian  dip- 
lomat who  had  been  round  the  world,  and  our 
host,  lately  minister  to  Austria  but  in  his  young 
days  an  officer  of  our  Navy  who  had  had  his  part 
in  the  taking  of  California  ;  he  had  also  been 
part  of  my  charming  first  experience  of  camp- 
ing travel  in  California  in  1849. 

Three  of  these  present  knew  the  realities  of 
Arizona  and  Yuma,  and  General  Sherman,  who 
was  about  making  an  inspection  tour  that  would 
carry  him  there  again,  heartily  pitied  me  while 
he  and  our  host  devised  means  to  mitigate  the 
inevitable  suffering  from  the  heat.  Beyond 
Yuma  there  was  no  railway,  and  the  most  ele- 
mentary forms  of  transportation  only,  but  it  was 
the  Government's  depot  for  all  military  trans- 


184  A    "  FAR    COUNTREE." 

portation.  Orders  were  sent  to  Yuma  to  have 
what  was  needed  ready  for  us,  and  the  young 
officer  in  command  there  did  not  let  the  order 
shrink  in  his  handling. 

A  perfect  "  outfit "  was  ready  for  us,  and 
when  we  saw  the  mail  and  passengers  started 
off  in  the  only  local  transportation  to  be  had 
we  realized  the  kind  forethought  of  General 
Sherman  and  General  Beale.  By  comparison 
we  should  be  like  Elijah  taken  up  in  a  heavenly 
chariot  —  that  "sweet  charrut  "  I  used  to  hear 
the  plantation  negroes  sing  of. 

Passengers  and  mail  bags,  and  express  boxes, 
were  closely  packed  on  an  uncovered  buck- 
board  with  four  horses,  such  haggard,  over- 
driven bronchos  that  Mr.  Bergh  would  have 
had  their  ragged  harness  taken  off  immediately. 
On  this  machine  of  torture,  open  to  the  blinding 
glare  of  sun  and  sand,  the  passengers  stayed 
night  and  day,  only  getting  off  for  meals  or  to 
be  robbed. 

Seeins:  this  I  looked  back  no  more,  though 


A  "far  countree."  185 

the  officer  who  had  taken  us  to  his  quarters 
told  me  to  look  my  last  at  the  returning  train 
as  its  locomotive  was  shrieking  off  —  "  You  will 
not  see  such  a  lovely  sight  again." 

As  we  had  neared  Arizona  our  train  had  met 
that  with  General  Sherman  on  board.  Our 
trains  halted  a  little  for  him  to  come  for  a  talk 
with  us.  He  was  just  from  Prescott  (our  desti- 
nation) and  had  come  down  from  that  mountain 
part  of  the  country  in  the  delightful  new  ambu- 
lance prepared  for  us,  and  told  us  the  driver 
was  the  best  and  most  careful  they  had  in 
Arizona.  "  And  you'll  need  all  the  care  he  can 
use.  I  pity  you  —  I  pity  you.  Going  over  that 
road  there  were  places  where  I  shut  my  eyes 
and  held  my  breath.  You  will  cry,  and  say 
your  prayers."  He  was  through  the  rough  part 
of  his  inspection  tour  and  waved  us  a  farewell 
from  the  platform  of  his  special  car  as  it  whirled 
him  back  to  accustomed  ways  of  living. 

Such  a  journey  as  we  made  then  cannot  be 
repeated ;  for  two  great  overland  railways  now 


l86  A    "  FAR    COUNTREE." 

cross  Arizona,  one  at  the  south,  the  other  at 
the  north,  and  short  railroads  connect  them, 
opening  up  wooded  and  better  watered  country, 
while  irrigation  lias  worked  its  sure  wonders 
elsewhere.  As  a  record  showing  the  quick  pro- 
gress of  settlement  of  our  far  lands  a  letter 
written  by  me  at  that  time  has  its  interest: 

Prescott,  Arizona  Territory. 
November  21,  1878. 
"You  know  something  of  rough  travel  in  our 
western  country,  but  never  have  you  seen  such 
difficulties  surmounted  as  bar  the  way  between 
us  up  here  on  this  eagle's  perch  and  Yuma 
where  the  railway  ends.  It  is  but  two  hundred 
and  thirty  miles  of  distance,  but  distance  is  not 
the  matter.  Sand,  rock,  heat,  sharp  flinty  table- 
lands between  sharper,  rock-covered  mountains 
—  always  climbing  up  and  up  —  no  water  any- 
where except  at  wells  long  distances  apart,  until 
about  thirty  miles  from  here  when  tlie  small 
creeks  and  pine    timber  begin.     We    are    over 


A  "far  countree."  187 

six  thousand  feet  up  and  a  profile  of  the  route 
would  be  like  giant  steps  with  few  and  shallow 
landings  —  you  can  picture  the  climb  from  the 
base  at  Yuma,  sixty  feet  above  sea  level,  to 
this  six  thousand  feet  of  elevation  at  Pres- 
cott.  The  mesas  are  table-lands  partaking  of 
the  nature  of  the  nearest  hills  :  sand  near  Yuma, 
gravel  and  baked  earth  further  on,  then  a  rock, 
black  and  glittering  like  anthracite  coal,  vitri- 
fied by  volcanic  action,  with  never  a  blade  of 
grass  or  sign  of  water,  and  for  trees  only  cactus 
growths. 

"  Begin  with  us  at  the  military  quarters  at 
Yuma;  thick-walled  adobe  buildings  with  broad 
verandas  and  real  windows  and  doors  —  very 
needed  against  sand  storms.  These  are  on  a 
low  bluff  above  the  swift  muddy  Colorado,  while 
below  to  the  land  side  lies  the  mud-built  ancient 
Indian-Mexican  pueblo,  looking  like  a  damagec^ 
brick-kiln,  and  nearly  as  heated. 

"We  stayed  with  the  pleasant  lonesome  young 


l88  A    *'  FAR    COUNTREE," 

officer  two  days  while  the  ambulances  were 
packed  and  all  made  ready  for  *  the  desert 
travel.'  Major  Lord  had  sent  forward  and  be- 
spoken the  water  needed  at  the  water  stations, 
and  our  start  was  timed  so  as  not  to  interfere 
with  the  supply  needed  by  the  mail  stage. 

"  Our  ambulance  was  a  large,  high,  well-swung 
coach  for  four,  with  the  driver's  seat  for  two, 
all  under  the  same  projecting  roof.  Six  of  the 
finest  possible  mules,  nearly  sixteen  hands  high 
bright  bays,  and  in  every  way  perfectly  matched, 
made  our  team.  The  quartermaster  might  well 
be  proud  of  them  —  so  was  the  head  tenmsttt 
'  Mac,'  who  was  deserving  of  all  General  Sher- 
man's praise  and  who  did  take  all  care  possible 
to  avoid  rough  jerks  but  —  weren't  we  bruised  i 
All  army  things  keep  to  the  blue  and  our  coaci: 
with  its  blue  body,  canvas  sides,  and  russe' 
leather  lining  was  worthy  the  United  State? 
coat  of  arms  painted  on  the  driving  box.  A 
less  new  and  handsome  but  excellent  ambulance 
with  six  strong  brown  mules  was  for  others  c 


A  "far  countree."  189 

our  party  and  light  baggage,  while  another  six 
mule  wagon-ambulance  carried  heavier  baggage, 
kegs  of  water  and  feed  for  the  mules,  and  our 
tent  and  camp  equipage  ;  for  we  were  to  eat, 
sleep  and  be  in  the  open  for  eight  days  and 
nights.  The  teams  having  to  go  through  with- 
out change  could  only  make  thirty  miles  a  day  ; 
the  heat,  the  want  of  water  and  shade,  and  the 
hot  sand  and  then  rocky  way  made  these  thirty 
miles  very  wearing.  The  whole  'outfit'  was 
as  complete  and  comfort-giving  as  the  quarter- 
master's experience  and  good-will,  and  the 
resources  of  '  Uncle  Sam  '  could  furnish.  We 
made  an  imposing  procession  as  we  wound 
from  among  the  low-built  mud  houses  out  upon 
the  trackless  sands  of  the  Gila  plain  piloted  by 
Major  Lord  driving  himself  in  a  small  buck- 
board  with  two  gay  young  horses.  Then  came 
the  halt  for  a  good-by  and  many  thanks  for  all 
his  thought  and  trouble  for  our  comfort.  His 
eyes  were  nearly  destroyed  by  several  years  at 
Yuma.     He    had    reported    their   condition    to 


igo 


A    "  FAR    COUNTREE.' 


Washington  some  months  since  and  asked  for 
change  of  duty  to  a  cooler  station  and  where 
he  could  have  an  oculist  care  for  them,  but  his 
relief  had  not  come.  It  was  a  great  pleasure  to 
me  that  my  letter  to  Washington  about  this 
found  immediate  attention  and  the  poor  burned 
eyes  were  soon  transferred  to  Philadelphia. 

"We  had  made  a  very  early  start,  but  it  was 
hot  and  blinding  notwithstanding  our  thick  blue 
veils  and  the  lowered  canvas  curtains.  We 
had  dropped  into  silent  attention,  to  avoid  the 
jerking  and  rolling  which  stones  and  roots  and 
want  of  any  road  must  bring,  when  the  grinding 
was  changed  for  a  forward  rush  of  the  mules, 
cheers  and  calls  of  encouragement  from  the 
teamsters,  and  behold  we  had  plunged  into  the 
broad  Gila  River  and  the  teams  were  all  swim- 
ming, scrambling,  snorting,  the  teamsters  talk- 
ing to  them  a  language  they  understood,  and 
quick  all  hands  were  ready  for  accidents,  for 
the  wide  Gila  is  famous  for  quicksands,  shifting 
sands  and  treacherous  undercurrents.     I   knew 


A    "far    COUNTREE."  igi 

of  it,  well,  and  was  horribly  afraid  —  a  ford 
any  way  is  a  detestable  grind,  and  one  seems 
getting  swept  away  ;  but  in  all  this  noise  of 
men  and  animals,  with  the  water  up  to  the  coach 
body,  though  I  was  dizzy  and  scared,  old  training 
told,  and  I  was  praised  for  my  silence  then,  and 
later,  when  we  wound  along  many  a  sharp  turn 
of  narrow  road  cut  in  the  rock  where  there  was 
not  a  foot  to  spare  between  the  wall  of  rock  on 
one  side  and  the  precipice  alongside.  General 
Sherman  was  right  —  I  shut  my  eyes,  and  tried 
not  to  think. 

"We  made  our  first  camp  on  the  bank  of  the 
full  rolling  Colorado.  It  was  good  to  see  even 
its  discolored  waters  where  all  else  was  sand. 
As  it  was  still  hot  we  were  sent  to  wait  inside 
the  '  hotel '  until  the  sun  was  lower  and  the 
camp  in  order  ;  a  small  one-story  plank  build- 
ing, but  with  board  floors  freshly  sprinkled.  It 
had  the  fine  name  of  '  Castle  Dome,'  but  was 
lodging-house,  mail   station,    store   and    mining 


192  A  "far  countree. 

depot  for  all  the  mines  near  around.  To  one 
of  these  mines  was  bound  a  most  agreeable 
New  York  man  to  whom  we  had  offered  a  seat 
in  our  conveyance  ;  and  in  the  Castle  Dome  we 
came  upon  traces  of  another.  We  were  shown 
into  his  room  as  the  coolest  place  — the  roof  and 
sides  were  interlaced  cactus ;  the  ocoiiUa  which 
makes  natural  lathing  from  ten  to  twenty  feet 
long.  It  grows  in  one  compact  thorny  fluted 
column,  and  when  it  is  ripe  it  falls  apart  from 
the  top,  making  building  and  roofing  material, 
which  plastered  with  mud  answers  every  pur- 
pose. The  room  proper  was  dug  down  like  a 
cellar,  for  coolness,  and  had  an  earth  floor;  the 
rough-hewn  little  bedstead  stood  in  four  kero- 
sene cans  kept  filled  with  water  to  intercept 
tarantulas  and  other  such  local  pests.  Empty 
goods-boxes  did  duty  for  dressing  and  writing 
tables.  It  was  all  clean  and,  relatively,  cool. 
The  young  men  of  the  place  brouglit  us  fresh 
water,  and  candies  (in  tins),  and  made  the 
unfailing  atmosphere  of  welcome. 


A    FAR    "COUNTREE." 


193 


"  Good  cologne  water  and  bay  rum  were  by 
the  tin  washing  basin,  and  the  writing  table  had 
a  Russia  leather  blotting  book  and  writing  ap- 
pointments that  made  you  sorry  to  see  such 
habits  fastened  to  such  a  spot — more  so  when 
there  caught  my  eye  over  the  writing  table, 
nailed  to  the  mast  that  propped  the  sloping  roof, 
a  little  half-worn  bronze  kid  slipper  with  its  tar- 
nished steel  buckle  and  frayed  bow.  We  said 
at  once  'He  has  nailed  his  colors  to  the  mast  — 
he  will  not  give  up  until  Victory  or  Death  ends 
the  fight  with  Fortune  —  the  little  shoe  must 
have  its  path  made  smooth,  and  this  exile  is 
here  to  battle  bravely,  bearing  the  brunt  alone 
that  she  may  not  know  the  rough  ways  of  life, 

**  The  owner  of  the  room  was,  we  found, 
managing  a  mine  some  miles  off.  He  had  lived 
there  nearly  a  year  ! 

"  While  we  waited  I  wrote  at  his  table  a  word 
back  to  my  own  young  people,  and  then  wrote 
our  thanks  to  the  unknown  for  the  shelter  of  his 
room,  and  told  him  what  his  writing  things  and 


194  A    "  FAR    COUNTREE.  ' 

the  slipper  said  to  us  —  the  pretty  footprint 
on  these  far  sands  —  with  a  '  Take  heart, 
Brother.'  * 

*'  By  this  our  tent  was  set  and  the  sun  sink- 
ing, and  we  could  go  out  to  our  camp  where  we 
found  it  very  nice  and  home-like.  Our  capable 
Chinese,  a  good  cook  and  a  good  man  of  the 
upper  class  of  trained  Chinese  servants,  had 
been  given  to  us  in  San  Francisco,  by  an  army 
family  'ordered  East.'  Major  Lord  had  had 
prepared  a  most  comfortable  complete  '  outfit ' 
of  folding  table  and  camp  chairs,  and  now  by 
the  tent  the  blue-painted  table  held  its  block 
tin  tea  equipage,  wliile  Mary,  trim  and  tidy  as 
always  (with  even  a  white  apron  on),  handed  us 
afternoon  tea.  She  would  come,  though  we  told 
her   it  was  all  so  new  and  different.     'If  you 


*Two  years  after  I  met  a  lady  who  introduced  herself  as  "the 
mother  of  the  bronze  slipper,"  the  nicest  kind  of  nice  New  York 
woman.  Her  son  had  sent  them  my  note  because  it  was,  he  said,  so 
curiously  true  to  his  feeling  about  the  slipper  and  to  his  work.  It  is 
pleasant  to  know  the  mine  had  sold  well  and  it  was  all  smooth  for  the 
little  shoe. 


A  "far  countree.  195 

can  stand  it  sure  I  can  stand  it  too,'  and  she 
has  most  helpingly.* 

"The  young  New  York  man  who  was  to  leave 
us  here  had  recently  been  two  years  in  Spain  as 
attache'  to  our  Legation  there.  We  knew  his  peo- 
ple on  Stuyvesant  Square  in  New  York  and  we 
were  all  amused  by  the  contrast  of  our  talk  with 
its  framing.  The  teamsters  had  made  a  settle- 
ment with  the  ambulances  and  animals  and 
their  fire,  farther  back  from  the  river,  and  off 
from  our  fire  and  tent.  As  the  shadows  fell 
and  the  moon  came  up  the  sound  of  the  river 
was  cool  and  gave  a  respite  from  the  day's 
glare  and  wide  blank. 

"  Chung  proved  to  be  an  expert  in  preparing 
tinned  things  and  his  grave  decorous  manner 
and  Chinese  dress  made  him  a  good  accessory 
in  our  desert  picture. 

"  I  had  the  ambulance  cushions,  the  others 
just  rolled  in  their  blankets  and  lay  on  the  sand, 

"  Mary,"  still  "  on  duty,"  is  now  in  her  twenty-fourth  year  of  service 
with  us. 


196  A  "far  countree." 

the  canvas  floor  of  the  tent  helping  greatly  in 
tidy  effects.  We  women-kind  were  pleased  to 
find  no  stiffness  follow  ;  we  slept  soundly  and 
rose  refreshed  while  it  was  yet  starlight,  for 
'  early '  was  the  good-night  word.  Again 
Chung  took  rank  as  an  acquisition,  for  he  was 
punctual  to  his  orders.  We  had  our  early  tea 
and  coffee  and  cakes  of  thin  fresh  baked  bread 
by  the  light  of  the  fire  and  a  waning  moon  and 
stars.  The  tent  was  struck,  everything  packed, 
the  wagons  in  line,  and  we,  seated  in  our  ambu- 
lance, waited  for  the  signal  to  start  which  came 
when  the  hands  of  that  faithful  old  chronometer 
which  has  timed  so  many  observations  in  wild 
lands  marked  6  a.  m.  Then  we  led  off  and  the 
others  followed.  This  was  our  regular  routine. 
We  traveled  on  until  about  eleven,  when  the 
halt  was  made  to  wash  out  the  mules'  mouths 
from  kegs  of  water  carried  along,  and  give  them 
a  half-hour's  rest.  Then  on  until  two  or  three 
o'clock,  our  stop  being  regulated  by  the  water 
station. 


A    "  FAR   COUNTREE.  I97 

"  Each  morning  (while  we  were  fresh)  the  great 
novelty  of  the  whole  thing  was  delightful,  but 
with  advancing  day  and  heat  I  fear  there  was 
but  the  one  idea  —  the  getting  through  to  the 
day's  end.  The  stern  black  mountains  like 
monster  coal  heaps  and  the  strange  cactus 
growths  were  soon  all  shimmering  in  a  hot  haze 
and  one's  eyes  burned  with  looking  out,  but  they 
were  sights  to  be  remembered.  Fancy  columns 
of  gray-green  growths  twenty,  thirty  feet  high 
all  about  like  obelisks  —  others  like  giant  cande- 
labra, some  like  a  skeleton  apple-tree  tipped  with 
tattered  old  palm-leaf  fans.  All  these  spiky 
with  thorns.  There  was  one  cactus  I  quite 
hated,  it  looked  so  silly  —  a  column  six,  ten,  and 
more,  feet  high,  with  just  one  projecting  limb  — 
a  stupid  finger-post  pointing  to  nowhere.  I  saw, 
on  the  second  day,  one  of  these  that  seemed  to 
move  — '  the  shimmering  from  the  heat  makes 
that  cactus  seem  to  sway.'  It  did  move  and  as 
we  neared  lifted  its  hat.  It  was  a  man  in  dust- 
colored  flannels   covered  with  gritty  dust  who 


ig8 


FAR    COUNTREE. 


had  ignorantly  attempted  to  walk  to  Prescott. 
He  would  have  died  from  thirst  and  heat  had 
we  not  met.  We  took  him  up  and  gave  him  a 
lift  to  Prescott  where  he  found  good  employ- 
ment, and  was  very  useful  to  the  teamsters  on  the 
road.  This  was  the  only  human  being  we  met. 
The  only  living  thing  except  an  occasional 
"  cotton  tail  "  which  kept  Frank's  Winchester 
rifle  in  practice.  Thor  insisted  on  leaping  down 
to  follow  the  first  rabbit  —  he  never  tried  it 
again,  for  cactus  thorns  and  flints  of  vitrified 
rock  attacked  his  high-bred  feet  used  only  to 
carpets  and  well-kept  roads.  He  is  too  old  a 
dog  to  learn  new  ways  and  we  just  love  him  for 
what  he  is,  not  for  what  he  might  have  been. 
He  is  not  happy,  he  often  looks,  '  Why  are  we 
here  ?  let  us  go  home.' 

"  The  water  stations  were  not  pools  and  foun- 
tains with  palm-trees  and  green  grasses  around 
—  but  usually  a  'bush-arbor'  covering  a  well- 
mouth  with  a  small  shanty  alongside  —  all  out  on 
the  bare  plain ;  very  ugly,  but  vitally  necessary. 


A    "  FAR    COUNTREE.  I99 

"  At  one  place  we  found  the  man  of  the  station 
either  had  not  the  water  in  his  well,  as  he  said, 
or  he  had  sold  it  —  any  way  we  could  not  camp 
there.  That  was  bad,  but  the  mules  must  have 
their  water;  so  we  pushed  for  a  place  he  told  us 
of,  off  to  the  side  of  the  traveled  route,  among 
hills  of  rock  where  were  some  natural  reservoirs, 
'  the  Horse  Tanks.'  Also  some  Indians,  who 
looked  on  this  natural  water  supply  as  theirs 
and  resented  its  being  interfered  with.  Our 
eighteen  mules  and  thirteen  people  would  be  a 
big  '  interference.'  '  They  won't  like  it,'  said 
the  water-man,  '  but  there's  enough  of  you  to 
have  your  way  '  —  a  nice  prospect  for  us  ! 

*'  It  was  but  four  miles,  but  the  roughest  sort 
of  broken  gullied  foot-hill  country  once  we  left 
the  level  skirting  it.  It  seemed  the  poles  must 
break  in  the  abrupt  descent  and  steep  climb  of 
the  narrow  gullies  that  seamed  the  way. 

"  The  Tanks  were  in  a  narrow  pocket  among 
steep  hills,  and  as  we  neared  them  the  mules 
smelled  the  water  and  hurried  most  uncomfort- 


20©  A    "  FAR   COUNTREE." 

ably  —  they  cried  out  and  could  hardly  be 
guided  and  were  unruly  in  being  unharnessed. 

"  The  three  gentlemen  to  whom  we  had  offered 
place  upon  our  transportation,  the  Cactus-man, 
the  General  and  Frank  were  all  for  the  time 
active  aids  to  the  teamsters. 

"  It  would  never  do  to  let  a  mule  get  loose ; 
the  Indians  hidden  all  about  in  the  rocks  would 
make  short  work  of  it.  We  helped  Chung  get 
the  tea.  There  was  no  wood  —  it  was  funny  to 
see  us  grappling  with  the  tough  roots  of  bushes, 
for  daylight  was  going  fast  and  we  were  not  to 
show  a  light  after  dark.  Poor  Thor  was 
wretched.  His  feet  got  filled  with  cactus  thorns 
—  he  tried  to  pull  them  out  with  his  mouth  and 
got  them  in  his  tongue  and  through  the  night  his 
young  mistress  was  patiently  getting  them  out 
from  his  mouth  and  soothing  him  with  arnica. 

"All  night  the  men  kept  guard.  The  mules 
were  tightly  fastened  and  watched  and  were 
rampageous.  We  made  off  at  earliest  light 
with   only  a   cold  mouthful   all    round,  but  an 


A    "  FAR    COUNTREE."  20I 

early  and  longer  halt  for  a  good  luncheon 
evened  up  our  scant  dinner  and  breakfast. 

"Our  last  night  out  it  was  so  bitterly  cold  in 
the  narrow  defile  where  we  camped  that  no  one 
slept  well.  Men  were  moving  about  and  keep- 
ing up  the  fires  all  through  the  night.  It  was 
an  uneasy  camp. 

"  The  mail  stage  coming  along  the  next  night 
was  waylaid  in  that  defile,  the  horses  cut  out  and 
carried  off,  and  several  persons  badly  wounded 
in  the  fighting.  Two  of  the  highwaymen  were 
caught  and  punished.  They  confessed  having 
been  ready  the  night  before  to  attack  our  party, 
but  we  were  too  many,  and  too  much  on  the 
alert ;  not  only  from  the  cold,  but  because  it  was 
a  place  of  evil  fame  (which  I  was  not  let  to 
know)  and  our  excellent  head  teamster  was 
relieved  in  the  morning  when  we  got  beyond 
the  long  defile  into  the  wide  open  country." 

From  that  old  letter  let  me  tell  something  of 
what   we   found    in    this    mountain    town  ;    the 


202  A    "  FAR    COUNTREE. 

"  Far  West  "  has  its  oases  of  pleasant  people 
even  in  its  wildest  wilds.  We  had  come  the  last 
morning  through  what  is  in  local  parlance  "  a 
white  man's  country"  —  timber  and  creeks, 
fenced-in  lands,  cattle  farms  and  saw-mills,  and 
as  we  neared  Prescott  comfortable  farms  and 
country  homes ;  to  be  met  near  the  town  by  a 
most  pleasant  welcome  —  quite  a  procession  in 
carriages  and  on  horseback.  As  it  was  Sunday 
the  people  along  the  unpaved  mountain  street 
just  waved  hats  and  handkerchiefs,  but  we  felt 
welcomed.  And  when  we  stopped  at  a  small 
cottage  a  real  surprise  waited  us.  Its  kindest 
of  owners  had  moved  into  a  neighboring  house 
and  theirs  was  to  be  ours  until  we  found 
what  suited  us.  (The  "  hotel  "  was  impossible.) 
Imagine  the  contrast  to  our  camping  —  the  ut- 
most elegance  and  comfort  and  such  beauties 
as  a  grand  piano,  a  harp,  pale  blue  satin  hang- 
ings and  furniture,  books  in  number,  engrav- 
ings, sketches  in  water-colors,  every  appointment 
of  a  lovely  home.     A  big   key  was  laughingly 


A    "  FAR    COUNTREE.  203 

given  me  with  "Lock  us  out  until  you  have  a 
house  of  your  own."  Meantime  a  charmingly 
delicate  dinner  was  ready.  Our  Chinese  had 
joined  theirs,  and  in  short  for  nearly  a  week  we 
actually  had  to  accept  all  this  hospitality.  We 
all  dined  together  and  some  nice  persons  were 
daily  added  until  we  got  the  run  of  people. 

"There  is  a  wonderfully  good  small  society 
here  —  people  who  would  be  agreeable  to  know 
anywhere.  The  head-quarters  of  this  depart- 
ment are  here  which  adds  the  officers  and  their 
families.  Some  are  unusually  agreeable.  These, 
with  some  of  the  citizens  and  leading  lawyers, 
have  made  up  a  really  remarkable  Dramatic 
Club.  They  have  built  a  pretty  theater  that 
seats  about  four  hundred  people.  The  Post 
band  is  orchestra.  There  are  some  well-trained 
voices,  and  with  a  grand  piano,  a  harp,  and  a 
violinist  of  real  skill,  occasional  concerts  are 
given.  The  stock  company  numbers  several 
really  beautiful  and  charming  women  —  ofificer.s' 


204  A    '    FAR   COUNTREE. 

wives  and  ladies  living  in  town  —  acting  far 
above  the  average  professional.  Among  the 
men  is  one  Colonel  of  the  army  who  comes 
close  to  Wallack  in  light  drama,  and  one 
lawyer  of  rare  voice  and  ability  —  while  others 
"  go  in  "  willingly  and  well  too  for  all  they  can 
contribute.  And  the  audiences  take  the  points 
well  and  encouragingly  —  admission  a  dollar, 
which  goes  to  the  theater  fund,  or  sometimes  to 
a  charity,  a  widow  or  a  sick  person,  or  the  Sis- 
ters' Hospital,  that  picket-guard  of  humane  care. 

"  Imagine  this  up  here  where  the  real  savage 
Indian  still  lives,  moves  and  takes  the  being  out 
of  white  people.  Six  years  ago  they  scalped  peo- 
ple on  this  spot.  The  outposts  of  our  skimp 
little  army  had  long  and  hard  work  to  bring 
about  the  present  safety  to  settlements  and 
miners  —  it  was  real  tragedy  then. 

"  Now  a  fine  brick  schoolhouse  with  a  roll  of 
two  hundred  scholars  stands  secure,  where  the 
Indians  held  rule.  .  ,  .  This  school  and  its 
scholars  interest  me.     I   go  every  Friday  and 


A  "far  countree."  205 

give  the  upper  class  a  '  history-lalk,'  not  such 
as  we  used  to  have  in  the  beautiful  home 
library,  for  their  minds  are  not  full  as  yours 
was.  But  on  the  skeleton  of  their  outline 
historical  study  I  try  to  put  flesh  and  garments 
and  infuse  life  and  motive  into  certain  figures. 

"  You  know  the  kind  of  young  men  in  our  Far 
West  who  really  toil  to  reach  knowledge  and 
training ;  there  are  some  of  these,  up  to  twenty 
and  older,  who  have  only  their  elementary  knowl- 
edge of  experience  in  this  untouched  country.  To 
them  history  and  biography  are  fairyland.  You 
can  imagine  how  grateful  it  is  to  me  to  be  wel- 
comed into  the  class-room  by  their  clear  eager 
eyes,  to  be  asked  such  intelligent  questions  and 
to  know  I  have  added  to  their  thoughts  and 
ideas  in  a  wholesome  way,  and  that  they  are 
spurred  to  new  effort  by  my  interest  in  them. 

"  Strangely  different,  and  without  new  force  as 
this  life  is  for  me,  I  can  impart  grace  and 
warmth  to  these  aspiring  young  American 
minds,  and  that   makes    me    like    my    Fridays. 


2o6  A    "  FAR    COUNTREE." 

'You're  a  blessed  lunatic,'  one  pleasant  woman 
said  to  me ;  but  I  know  it  is  a  lunacy  twice 
blessed,  for  it  keeps  down  the  unavailing  home- 
sickness to  see  how  other  young  lives  are  the 
happier  for  even  this  little  of  the  dear  home 
teachings." 


^ 


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SEP  1 3 198|B 

UVUAL  JW  24^91 


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L 


REC'D  LD-URL 
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